IMAGE  EVALUATION 
TEST  TARGET  (MT-3) 


1.0 


I.I 


11.25 


utjm  12: 

•so   "^^     H^H 

Hi  1^   12.2 


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Hioliographic 

Sciences 

Corporation 


23  WEST  MAIN  STRIET 

WEBSTER,  N.Y.  145M 

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\  *^o 


CIHM/ICMH 

Microfiche 

Series. 


CIHIVI/iCMH 
Collection  de 
microfiches. 


Canadian  Institute  for  Historical  MIcroreproductions  /  Institut  Canadian  de  microreproductions  historiques 


Technical  and  Bibliographic  Notes/Notes  techniques  et  bibliographiques 


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I      I    Covers  damaged/ 


D 


□ 


D 
D 


D 


D 


Couverture  endommagte 


Covers  restored  and/or  laminated/ 
Couverture  restaurie  et/ou  pelliculAe 


I      I    Cover  title  missing/ 


Le  titre  de  couverture  manque 


Coloured  maps/ 

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et  de  haut  en  bas,  en  prenant  le  nombre 
d'images  n6cessaire.  Les  diagrammes  suivants 
illustrent  la  mAthode. 


1 

2 

3 

1 

2 

3 

4 

5 

6 

NARRATIVE  AND  CRITICAL  HISTORY  OF  AMER- 
ICA. With  Bibliographical  and  Descriptive  Essays  on 
its  Historical  Sources  and  Authorities.  Profusely  illus- 
trated with  portraits,  maps,  facsimiles,  etc.  Edited  by 
Justin  Winsor,  Librarian  of  Harvard  University,  with 
the  cooperation  of  a  Committee  from  the  Massachusetts 
Historical  Society,  and  with  the  aid  of  other  learned 
Societies.  In  eight  royal  8vo  volumes.  Each  volume, 
*tf>  $5-5o;  sheep,  ttet,  $6.50;  half  morocco,  net,  I7.S0. 
{Sold  only  by  subscription/or  the  entire  set. ) 

READER'S  HANDBOOK  OF  THE  AMERICAN  REV- 
OLUTION.    i6mo,  $1.35. 

WAS  SHAKESPEARE  SHAPLEIGH?  i6mo,  rubri- 
cated parchment  paper,  75  cents. 

CHRISTOPHER  COLUMBUS,  and  how  he  received  and 
imparted  the  Spirit  of  Discovery.  With  portraits  and 
maps.    8vo,  gilt  top,  $4.00. 

CARTIER  10  FRONTENAC.  A  Study  of  Geographical 
Discovery  in  the  interior  of  North  America,  in  its  his- 
torical relations,  1534-1700.  With  full  cartographical 
Illustrations  from  Contemporary  Sources.  8vo,  gilt 
top,  $4,00. 

THE  MISSISSIPPI  BASIN.  The  Struggle  in  America  be- 
tween England  and  France,  1697-1763.  With  full  car- 
tographical Illustrations  from  Contemporary  Sources. 
8vo,  gilt  top,  $4.00. 

THE  WESTWARD  MOVEMENT:  The  Struggle  for  the 
Trans-Allegheny  Region,  1763-1797.  With  full  carto- 
graphical Illustrations  from  Contemporary  Sources. 
8vo,  54.00. 

HOUGHTON,  MIFFLIN  AND  COMPANY, 
Boston  and  New  York. 


Cartier  to  jprontenac 


5-T.v 


<.<^\* 
<^,<> 


oJ'<5 


& 


'•(O 


W/3pAN''«    INS. 

SYLVANUS,   151  I 


FRANQUEL'N,    1684 


I 


GEOGRAPHICAL  DISCOVERY  IN  THE 

INTERIOR 


OF 


NORTH  AMERICA 


IN    ITS   HISTORICAL  RELATIONS 

1534— 1700 

W/T/f  FULL  CARTOGRAPHICAL  ILLUSTRA- 
TIONS  FROM    CONTEMPORARY   SOURCES 


BY 


JUSTIN  WINSOR 


BOSTON  AND   NEW  YORK      ' 
HOUGHTON,  MIFFLIN  AND   COMPANY 
$irbc  S^AJcrjsibe  fniiy  Cambri&oe 
1900 


pf)i)p 

r<^ 

30S 

W  6^' 

Copyright,  1894, 

B«  JUSTIN  WINSOR. 

All  rights  reserved. 


THIRD   IMPRESSION 


7%«  Riverside  Press,  Cambridge,  Mass.,  U.  S.  A. 
Electrotyped  and  Printed  by  H.  O.  Houghton  and  Company. 


il 


To  JAMES  B.   ANGELL,  LL.   D., 

Prehidemt  of  the  University  of  Michiqan. 


Dear  Doctor  :  — 

Your  fortune  took  you  from  the  seaboard  of  New  England  to  the 
valley  of  the  St.  Lawrence,  and  on  the  banks  of  that  lake  where 
Champlain  first  invoked  the  enmity  of  the  Iroquois,  you  took  your 
place  among  those  who  preside  over  our  American  colleges.  Thence 
you  went  to  a  distant  verge  of  that  same  valley,  and  near  the  path 
which  La  Salle  followed  in  the  boldest  action  of  his  life,  you  have 
developed  the  greatest  university  which  we  have  beyond  the  moun- 
tains. 

No  one  knows  better  than  yourself  how  the  gi*eat  valley  which  the 
American  people  shares  with  others  on  the  north,  and  the  greater  valley 
of  the  interior  which  is  all  ours,  and  which  almost  becomes  one  with 
the  other  at  various  points,  carry  the  streams  of  national  life  back  and 
forth  between  the  gulf  which  Cartier  opened  and  that  other  gulf  which 
Columbus  failed  to  comprehend.  This  book  cannot  be  more  fitly 
inscribed  than  to  you,  by  an  adopted  son  of  your  university,  and  your 
friend, 


JMlifktkt/^ 


Harvard  IjNrvERsiTY, 
September,  1S93. 


'<i^^"»' 


CONTENTS  AND  ILLUSTRATIONS. 


CHAPTER  I. 


PAOI 


From  Columbus  to  Cartier.    1492-1534 

Illustrations:  Canerio  Map  (1503),  1;  La  Cosa  Map  (1500), 
2  ;  Chart  (Kunstmann),  3 ;  Reinel  Chart  (1503),  5,  6  ;  Portu- 
guese Mappemonde  (1502),  7  ;  Ruysch's  Map  (1508),  8  ;  Denys's 
alleged  Map  (1506),  9 ;  Sylvanus's  Map  in  Ptolemy  (1511),  11 ; 
Lazaro  Luiz's  Map  (1563),  12  ;  Portuguese  Chart  (1520),  15 ; 
Coppo's  Map  (1528),  16  ;  Verrazano's  Map,  17  ;  MaioUo's  Map 
(1527),  19;  Cok's  Map  (1582),  20;  Francisciis  Monachus's 
Globe  (1526),  22. 

CHAPTER  II. 

Cartier,  Roberval,  and  Allefonsce.    1534-1542 

Illustrations  :  Gaspar  Viegas's  Chart,  25 ;  Ramusio's  Hoche- 
laga,  32  ;  Lescarbot's  Hochelaga,  34  ;  Allefonsce's  Sketch  Maps, 
42,  43  ;  Cartier,  Portrait,  45  ;  Cartier's  Manor  House,  46. 


23 


!;!! 


I:'' 


•h  li 


CHAPTER  III. 

The  Results  of  Cartier's  Explorations.  1542-1603  .... 
Illustrations  :  Mercator's  Cordiform  Map  (1538),  49 ;  Rotz's 
Charts  (1542),  50,  51 ;  Cabot's  Mappemonde  (1544),  53  ;  Des- 
celier's  Map  (1546),  54  ;  Nicolas  Vallard  Map,  55  ;  Medina's 
Map  (1545),  59  ;  Gastaldo's  Map  in  Ramusio,  60,  61 ;  Homem's 
Map  (1558),  62  ;  Mercator's  Map  (1569),  64  ;  Ortelius's  Map 
(1570),  65  ;  Judaeis's  Map  (1593),  67  ;  Quadus's  Map  (1600), 
68;  Mblineaux's  Map  (1600),  69  ;  John  Dee's  Map  (1580),  71; 
Hakluyt-Martyr  Map  (1587),  72. 


48 


t  ■ 


CHAPTER  IV. 

Abortive  Attempts  at  Colonization.    1600-1607 77 

Illustrations  :  Tadoussac,  after  Champlain,  79  ;  Champlain,  81; 
The  Ottawa  Route  (1642),  87. 


VI 


CONTENTS  AND  ILLUSTRATIONS. 


CHAPTER  V. 

Colonization  established  at  Quebec.    1008-1613 83 

Illustrations  :  Champlain's  Fight  near  Ticonderugn,  t)7  ;  Chain- 
plain's  Map  of  the  Gulf  of  St.  Lawrence  (lOl'J),  102  ;  of  the 
Great  Lakes  (1612),  104,  105  ;  another  (1613),  106,  107  ;  Map 
of  Hudson's  Explorations,  108, 109  ;  Map  from  the  Delectio  Fred 
Hudsoni  (1613),  110 ;  Champlain's  Astrolabe,  111 ;  Ship  (1613), 
113. 

CHAPTER  VL 

War,  Trade,  and  Missions.    The  Fatj.  of  Quebec.    1614-1629  .  114 
Illustrations  :  Champlain's  Route  (1615),  118  ;  The  Onondaga 
Fort,  119 ;  Map  of  the  Huron  Country,  120 ;  Map  by  Jacobsz 
(1621),  125;  Alexander's  Map  (1624),  128. 


CHAPTER  VIL 

Quebec   Restored.      Explorations    of   Nicolet.      Death   of 

Champlain.    1630-1636 136 

Illustrations  :  Champlain's  Gulf  of  St.  Lawrence  (1632),  140  ; 
Hondius's  Map  (1635),  141  ;  The  Great  Lakes,  by  Champlain 
(1632),  142, 143  ;  James's  Map  of  Hudson  Bay,  145. 


CHAPTER  VIIL 

From  the   Death   of   Champlain  to  the  Reorganization   of 

THE  Government.     1635-1663 156 

Illustrations  :  Le  Jeune,  157 ;  Bellin's  Map  of  Montreal  and 
Vicinity  (1744),  162,  163  ;  Maisonneuve,  164  ;  Jeanne  Mance, 
165  ;  Madame  de  la  Peltrie,  166  ;  Montreal  and  Vicinity,  168 ; 
Dudley's  Map  (1647),  170,  171 ;  Br^beuf,  172  ;  Visscher's  Map 
(1652),  178  ;  Sanson's  Map  (1656),  179  ;  Heylyn's  Cosniographie 
(1656-62),  180 ;  Visscher's  Map  (1660),  181 ;  Blaeu's  Map 
(1652, 1665),  182  ;  Creuxius's  Map  (1660),  184,  185. 


CHAPTER   IX. 

Reorganized  Canada.    1663-1672 189 

Illustrations  :  Colbert,  190 ;  Lake  St.  Pierre  and  the  Sorel 
River  (1666),  192  ;  Hudson's  Bay  (1662),  196 ;  Jesuit  Map  of 
Lake  Superior  (1672),  208,  209  ;  Ogilby's  Map  (1670),  210  ;  La 
Salle,  212  ;  Laval,  215  ;  Duval's  Map  of  Canada,  216 ;  Galin^e's 
Map  (1669),  221  ;  Joliet's  Larger  Map  (1674),  225  ;  Joliet's 
Smaller  Map,  226,  227. 


CONTENTS  AND  ILLUSTRATIONS.  tU 

CHAPTER   X. 

The  Mississippi  Rkached.    1673 229 

Illustrations  :  La  Ilontan's  Plan  of  Mackinac  (1688),  235  ;  Juli- 
et's Earliest  Map  (1673-74),  245  ;  his  Carte  Gdndrale  (1681  ?), 
246  ;  Marquette's  Maps,  248,  249. 

CHAPTER  XI. 

Cataraqui  and  Crevecceur.    1673-1680 251 

Illustrations  :  Hennepin's  Drawing  of  a  Buffalo,  259  ;  Niagara 
River,  260  ;  Hennepin's  View  of  Niagara  Falls,  261. 

CHAPTER  XII. 

Duluth  and  Hennepin  on  the  Mississippi.    1678-1683  ....  273 
Illustrations  :  Building  of  the  "  Griffon,"  275  ;  Hennepin's  Map 
(1683),  279;  Terre  de  Jesso,  281  ;  Hennepin's  Map  (1697),  284, 
285. 

CHAPTER  XIII. 

La  Salle,  Frontenac,  and  La  Barre.    1681-1683 288 

Illustrations:  Basin  of  the  Great  Lakes  (1683?),  291  ;  Franque- 
lin's  Map  (1684),  294  ;  his  Map  of  the  Mississippi's  Mouths 
(1684),  296  ;  Starved  Rock,  303 ;  Fort  St.  Louis  de  Quebec 
(1683),  306. 

CHAPTER  XIV. 

La  Salle's  Texan  Colony.    1684-1687 308 

Illustrations  :  Map  of  La  Salle's  Camp,  314 ;  Minet's  Sketch 
Map  of  Matagorda  Bay,  315  ;  Minet's  Map  of  Louisiana,  316  ; 
Joutel's  Map,  318,  319. 

CHAPTER  XV. 

Denonville  and  Dongan.     1683-1687 326 

Illustrations  :  Ruins  of  the  Intendant's  Palace  in  Quebec,  327  ; 
Jailot's  Map  (1696),  332  ;  Plan  of  Fort  Frontenac,  335  ;  Dia- 
gram of  Denonville's  March,  336  ;  Map  of  Iroquois  Country,  by 
Raffeix  (1688),  338  ;  Map  of  the  Genesee  Country  (1687),  339. 

CHAPTER  XVI. 

Frontenac  Recalled.    1687-1698 341 

Illustrations  :  Franquelin's  Map  (1688),  344  ;  Coronelli  and 
Tillemon's  Map    (1688),  345;  Map  *' Nouvelle  Angleterre  et 


>• '  I 


Vlll 


CONTENTS  AND  ILLUSTRATIONS. 


Noiivel  York,"  from  Blome'H  America  (1G8H),  340  ;  Map  of  the 
Great  Lakes  by  Kaffeix  (1088),  U47  ;  The  Fox-WiscoiiBin  River 
Route,  340  ;  La  Hontan's  Maps  of  Canada,  352,  303,  354  ;  Ships 
from  Ln  Hontaii,  357  ;  The  Larger  Hennepin  Map  (1007),  358, 
359  ;  Edward  Well'H  Map  (1008-1090),  302  ;  Chfiteau  de  St. 
Louis  (1008),  303;  The  Frontonao  Statue,  304. 


A  STUDY  OF  GEOGRAPHICAL  DISCOVERY   IN 
THE  INTERIOR  OF   NORTH  AMERICA. 


CHAPTER  I. 


ft  H 

I  ii 


FUOM  COLUMBUS  TO  CARTIER. 
1492-1534. 


'*  '1" 


It  was  not  long  after  the  discovery  of  Columbus  before  it 
became  evident  to  some,  at  least,  that  the  great  Discoverer 
had  not  found  any  part  of  the  world  neighboring  to  Cathay, 


THE  CANERIO  MAP,  1503. 
[From  the  Bltetcli  iu  Ruge's  Kartographie  von  Ainerika.'\ 


FROM   COLUMBUS   TO  C ARTIER. 


A   NEW   WORLD  SUSPECTED. 


3 


however  remotely  connected  with  the  Orient  of  Marco  Polo  the 
new  regions  might  prove  to  be.  After  the  return  of  j^  „g„  ^0,,^ 
Columbus  in  1493,  it  is  apparent  that  Peter  Martyr  '^'p^^- 
hesitated  to  believe  that  Asia  had  been  reached.  It  was  quite 
clear  that  Columbus,  on  his  second  voyage,  himself  felt  uncer- 
tain of  his  proximity  to  Asia,  since,  to  preserve  his  credit  with 
the  Spanish  sovereigns,  he  forced  his  companions,  against  the 
will  of  more  than  half  of  them,  and  on  penalty  of  personal 
violence  if  they  recanted,  to  make  oath  that  Cuba  was  an  Asiatic 
peninsida.  He  even  took  steps  later  to  prevent  one  of  the  re- 
calcitrant victims  going  back  to  Spain,  for  fear  his  represen- 
tations would  unsettle  the  royal  faith  that  the  fabled  Orient 
had  been  reached.  When  his  pilot,  Juan  de  la  Cosa,  who  was 
one  of  those  forced  to  perjure  themselves,  found  himself  free  to 
make  Cuba  an  island  in  his  map  of  1500,  the  fact  that  he  put 
no  Asiatic  names  on  the  coast  of  a  continent  west  of  Cuba  has 


I 


PART  OF  CHART  NO.  II.  IN  KUNSTMANN. 

[Also  in  Bull,  de  Giog.  Hist,  et  Descriptive,  188C,  pi.  iv.] 

been  held  to  show  that  the  doubt  of  its  being  Asia  had  already 
possessed  that  seaman's  mind.  The  makers  of  the  Cantino 
and  Canerio  maps  in  1502  and  1503  respectively,  in  putting  in 
a  coast  for  Asia  distinct  from  this  continent  which  La  Cosa  had 


!'l 


•hi 


FROM  COLUMBUS   TO  C ARTIER. 


delineated,  establish  the  point  that  as  early  as  the  first  years 
of  the  sixteenth  century  the  cartographers  whose  works  have 
come  down  to  us  had  satisfied  themselves  that  areas  of  land  of 
continental  proportions  had  blocked  further  progress  to  the 
west.  The  geographical  question  then  uppermost  was  thus 
reduced  to  this :  Was  this  barrier  a  new  continent,  or  had  the 
islands  which  it  was  supposed  would  be  found  in  the  path  to 
Asia  proved  to  be  larger  than  was  imagined  ?  It  was  Colum- 
bus's purpose  in  his  fourth  voyage  to  find  an  opening  in  this 
barrier  through  which  to  reach  the  territories  of  the  Asiatic  po- 
tentates, and  then  to  continue  the  circumnavigation  of  the  earth. 
It  may,  then,  well  be  questioned  if  the  statement  ordinarily 
made,  that  Columbus  in  1506  died  in  ignorance  of  the  true 
geographical  conditions  pertaining  to  a  new  continent,  is  true, 
whatever  may  have  been  his  profession  in  the  matter.  There 
is,  as  we  have  seen,  good  ground  for  the  belief  that  he  did 
not  mean  the  Spanish  sovereigns  to  be  awakened  from  a  delu- 
sion in  which  he  deemed  it  for  his  interests  that  they  should 
remain- 
When  Balboa,  twenty  years  after  Columbus's  discovery,  made 
Balboa  and  ^^  more  palpable  that  south  of  the  Isthmus  of  Pan- 
Mageiiau.  ^,^^  there  was  a  substantial  barrier  to  western  prog- 
ress, and  when  ten  years  later  Magellan  pierced  this  southern 
barrier  at  its  Antarctic  extremity,  it  still  remained  a  problem 
to  find  out  the  true  character  of  the  northern  barrier  to  such  a 
progress,  and  to  find  a  place  to  enter  the  land,  along  a  northern 
parallel,  far  enough  to  reach  the  historic  India. 

There  were  two  waterways  by  which  this  northern  land  could 
The  two  ^SkVQ  been  explored  far  inland ;  but  for  forty  years 
ffican'*"  after  the  landfall  of  Columbus,  it  is  not  safe  to  af- 
waterways.  g^^j  positively  that  any  one  had  attempted  to  follow 
their  channels.  A  local  pride  among  the  rugged  sea-folk  of  the 
north  of  France  has  nevertheless  presented  claims  for  our  con- 
sideration that  one  at  least  of  these  passages  had  been  tried  at 
different  times  early  in  the  sixteenth  century.  Similar  claims 
have  been  made  for  Portuguese  mariners  a  little  later,  and  be- 
fore the  attempt  of  Cartier.  Hakluyt  even  mentions  that  the 
English  had  known  at  this  early  date  something  of  the  St.  Law- 
rence region ;  but  it  is  safe  to  say  that  no  such  record  is  known 
to-day.     These  great  waterways  lay  within  the  two  great  valleys 


THE  GREAT   WATERWAYS. 


of  the  yet  uncomprehended  continent  of  the  north,  —  the  Mis- 
sissippi and  the  St.  Lawrence,  —  which  at  the  west  were  so 
closely  connected  that  tidal  waves  arising  in  Lake  Michigan 
sometimes  overflowed  the  dividing  ridge.  The  early  explorers 
of  the  Great  Lakes  are  known  to  have  passed,  during  the  spring 
freshets,  in  their  canoes  from  one  valley  to  the  other,  by  that 
route  which  enables  the  modern  Chicago  to  discharge  its  sewage 
into  the  Gulf  of  Mexico  instead  of  the  Gulf  of  St.  Lawrence. 

The  striking  experiences  of  the  Spaniards  at  the  south  served 
to  draw  their  attention  from  a  due  examination  of  the  north- 


^■1 


REINEL  CHART,  1503. 
[After  the  Sketch  in  Kretschmer's  Atlas,  ix.'] 

ern  shores  of  the  Gulf  of  Mexico ;  so  that  Pineda  in  1519,  in 
finding  a  great  river  flowing  from  the  north,  which  we  now 
identify  with  the  Mississippi,  was  not  prompted  to  enter  it  in 
search  of  gold,  "because  it  is  too  far  from  the  tropics,"  as 
t  '  Spanish  cosmographer  Ribero  afterwards  expressed  it  in  a 
lej^end  on  his  map  of  1529.  Moreover,  this  metal  was  not  asso- 
ciated in  their  minds  with  such  low  regions  as  this  river  ap- 
parently drained ;  and  the  white  and  turbid  flow  of  its  waters 
well  out  into  the  gulf,  as  La  Salle  later  noticed,  seems  to  have 
raised  no  conception  of  the  vast  area  of  its  tributary  watershed. 
Almost  two  centuries  were  to  pass  before  its  channel  was  to  be 


\   I 


6 


FROM  COLUMBUS   TO  C ARTIER. 


fairly  recognized  as  a  great  continental  waterway ;  and  then 
the  explorations  which  divulged  its  extent  were  from  the  north 
and  down  the  stream. 

The  voyages  of  the  Cabots  and  the  Cortereals  had  been  the 

outcome  of  a  national  rivalry  which  had  sousfht  for 
land  and        Jijnglana  and  i'ortugal  some  advantage  in  the  north 

to  counterbalance  that  of  Spain  in  the  south.  It  will 
be  remembered  that  the  line  of  demarcation  moved  westerly 
by  the  treaty  of  Tordesillas  had  thrown,  it  was  supposed,  these 


PEDRO  REINEL'S  CHART. 

[From  Fac-siniiles  in  Kunstinann,  and  in  Bull,  de  Geog.  Hist,  et  Descriptive,  1880,  pi.  iii.] 

northern  regions  beyond  the  reach  of  Spain.  Whether  the 
Cabots  had  discovered  at  the  north  a  gulf  to  correspond  with 
the  Mexican  gulf  at  the  south,  and  had  found  an  expanse  of 
water  which  had  already  coursed  another  great  continental  val- 
ley, and  by  which  it  was  practicable  to  go  a  long  distance 


CONTEMPORARY  MAPS.  7 

towards  the  west,  must  probably  remain  uncertain.  Investiga- 
tion in  critical  hands  has  produced  a  divided  opinion.  Just 
what  the  Portuguese,  who  soon  followed  the  English  into  these 
waters,  did,  is  also  not  quite  certain  ;  and  though  it  can  hardly 
be  proved  that  the  Cortereals  entered  the  great  northern  gulf, 
it  seems  to  be  evident  from  a  Portuguese  portolano  of  1504, 


FROM  A  PORTUGUESE  MAPPEMONDE,  1502. 
[An  Extract  from  the  Fac-aimile  in  E.  T.  Hamy's  Paper,  in  the  £uU.  de  GSog.  Hist,  et  Descrip- 
tive, 1S8G,  p.  147  and  pi.  ii.     It  is  sometimes  called  "  The  King  Hap."] 

which  Kunstmann  has  reproduced,  that  at  this  time  they  had 
not  developed  the  entrances  to  this  gulf  north  and  west    of 
Newfoundland ;  while  it  is  clear  by  the  Reinel  chart  of  1505 
that  they  had  discovered  but  had  not  penetrated  these  passages. 
The  student  in  Europe  who  curiously  watched  the  progress 
of  geographical  development  beyond  the  sea  during  the 
sixteenth  century  naturally  followed  the  revelations 
in  the  successive  editions  of  the  Geographia  of  Ptolemy,  with 
the  new  maps  of  recent  progress  made  to  supplement  those 
long  familiar  as  pertaining  to  the  Old  World.     The  man  who 
made  the  map  for  the  Roman  Ptolemy  of  1507-8  is  believed  to 
have  been  a  companion  of  Cabot  in  these   northern  Ruygei,-, 
voyages  ;   and  this  work   of  Johanu   Ruysch  is   the  ""p*  ^^-^• 
earliest  engraved  map  which  we  have  showing  the  new  discover- 


I 


8 


FROM  COLUMBUS   TO  CARTIER. 


ies.  This  map  is  interesting  as  making  more  apparent  than  La 
Cosa,  seven  or  eight  years  before,  had  done,  that  these  new 
discoveries  might  have  been  in  part  along  the  coast  of  Asia, 
but  not  altogether  so.  There  is  no  sign  in  it  of  the  landlocked 
region  where  now  we  place  the  Gulf  of  Mexico ;  and  in  this 
respect  it  is  a  strong  disproof  of  the  alleged  voyage  of  Vespu- 
cius  in  1497 ;  but  it  may  give  the  beginning  of  a  continental 
area  which  was  soon  to  develop,  adjacent  to  the  West  Indies, 
into  what  we  call  North  America.  But  at  the  north  Buysch 
places  the  discoveries  of  the  English  and  Portuguese  unmistak- 


TlHRA  5ANCTL  CRU 

MUmoos  wovus 

RUTSCH,  1508. 

[From  the  earliest  engrayed  Map  showing  the  discoveries  in  the  west,  in  the  Ptolemy  of  1506 

(Rome).] 

ably  on  the  upper  Asiatic  coast ;  and  while  he  does  not  dissever 
Newfoundland  from  the  mainland,  he  goes  some  way  towards 
doing  it. 

So  we  may  say  that  in  1507,  one  working  in  Rome  with  the 


BASQUES  AND  NORMANS. 


9 


available  material  which  had  been  gathered  from  the  Atlantio 
seaports  had  not  yet  reached  a  conception  of  this  great  watery 
portal  of  a  continent  which  lies  back  of  Newfoundland. 
That  there  could  not  have  been  knowledge  of  this  obscure 
gulf  in  some  of   the  seaports  of  northern  and  western  France 


'^. 


^^'  -*»«. 


•: 


'4:i! 


^ 


(i 


! 


^  -H 


I 


emyof  1506 


""Kt        ^Olrt^<^ 


C^eut-s^    £?&lUa-^--^ 


!/■ 


OW 


JEAN  DENTS  (^alleged  Map),  150C. 
[Reduced  from  a  Tracing  furnished  from  the  Archives  at  Ottawa.] 


may  indeed  admit  of  doubt ;   and  perhaps  some  day  a  dated 
chart  may  reveal  the  fact.     We  need  not  confidently  trust  the 
professions   of   Michel   and   other  advocates  of    the  Basques 
Basques,  and  believe  that  a  century  before  Cabot  their  ^"^]^°'" 
hardy  fishermen   had  discovered  the  banks  of  New- 
foundland, and  had  even  penetrated  into  the  bays  and  inlets  of 


if 


ii 


10 


FliOM  COLUMBUS   TO   C ARTIER. 


the  adjacent  coasts.  Tliere  seems,  however,  little  doubt  that 
very  early  in  the  sixteenth  century  fishing  equipments  for  these 
regions  were  made  by  the  Normans,  as  Brcard  chronicles  them 
in  his  Documents  relatifs  a  la  Normand. 

In  the  very  year  when  the  Ruysch  map  became  known  in 
Europe  (1508),  it  is  claimed  by  Desmarquets  and  other  Diej)- 
Aubert.  pcse,  solicitous  for  the  credit  of  their  seaport,  that 
Denys.  Thomas  Aubcrt  went  eighty  leagues  up  the  St.  Law- 
rence River.  If  this  be  true,  the  great  northern  portal  was 
entered  then  for  the  first  time,  so  far  as  we  have  any  record  ;  but 
such  pretensions,  even  with  the  support  of  Ramusio,  hardly 
rest  on  indisputable  documents.  We  learn  from  Charlevoix  — 
too  late  an  authority  to  be  assuring  —  that  Jean  Denys  had 
made  a  chart  of  the  Gulf  of  St.  Lawrence  two  years  earlier 
(1506)  ;  but  the  evidence  to  prove  it  is  wanting.  This  map  is 
said  to  have  been  formerly  preserved  in  the  Paris  Archives, 
but  is  not  found  there  or  elsewhere  at  this  day.  What  passes 
for  a  copy  of  it,  treasured  at  Ottawa,  shows  names  of  a  palpa- 
bly later  period.  If  the  original  could  be  discovered,  it  might 
be  found,  possibly,  that  this  nomenclature  has  been  added  by 
a  more  recent  hand.  There  does  not  seem  to  be  anything  in 
the  configuration  of  its  shore  lines  that  might  not  have  been 
achieved  In  1506  by  an  active  navigator.  If  the  outlines  freed 
from  the  names  are  genuine,  it  would  show  that  there  had  thus 
early  been  explorations  to  the  west  of  Newfoundland,  which 
might  account  for  the  otherwise  surprising  delineation  of  the 
"Golfo  Quadrado,"  or  Square  Gulf,  which  appeared  on  the 
syivanus,  mappcmonde  of  Sylvanus  in  his  edition  of  Ptolemy 
1511.  jj^  1511.     This  represents  in  mid-ocean  in  the  north 

Atlantic  a  large  island,  little  resembling  Newfoundland,  how- 
ever, with  a  landlocked  gulf  to  the  west  of  it,  shut  in  by  a 
coast  which  in  the  north  and  south  parts  bends  so  as  nearly  to 
touch  the  island.  That  it  is  intended  for  Newfoundland  and 
the  neighboring  parts  admits  of  no  question ;  for  the  strange 
interior  coast  is  considered  to  be  the  region  of  the  Cortereal 
discoveries,  since  there  is  upon  it  a  Latinized  rendering  of  that 
name,  liegalis  Dormis.  Some  explorations  developing  such  a 
gulf,  whether  Denys's  or  those  of  others,  must  have  already 
taken  place,  then,  before  1511.  There  is  some  evidence  in 
Navarrete's   documents  (iii.  42)  that  the  Spaniai'd,  Juau  de 


ill 


THE  SQUARE   GULF. 


11 


Aoramonte,  had  been  engaged  in  1511  to  go  to  the  Newfound- 
land region ;  but  we  are  ignorant  of  the  sequel.  After  this 
(late,  for  a  score  of  years  and  more,  this  landlocked  water  of 
Sylvanus  absolutely  disappears  from  all  the  maps  which  have 
come  down  to  us,  —  nothing  remaining  but  indications  of 
entrances  to  the  gulf  by  the  Straits  of  Belle  Isle  and  by  the 
southern  passage.     It  is  noticeable  that  Gomara,  describing  this 


FAN'D 


OCCIDC'S 


f§ 


N1V5 


SYLVANUS,  1511. 
[Prom  the  Ptolemy  of  1511.] 

water  so  late  as  1555,  speaks  of  it  in  the  same  way,  as  the 
"  Square  Gulf." 

France  was  now  to  find  rivalry  in  these  waters  in  the  renewed 
efforts  of  the  Portuguese.  The  French  had  established  a  fish- 
ing-station in  Bradore  Bay,  just  within  the  Straits  of  Belle 
Isle,  which  they  called  Brest.  This  was  early  in  the  century, 
but  its  precise  date  is  difficult  to  determine.  Showing  some  of 
the  activity  of  the  Portuguese,  we  have  a  chart  of  that  FnRundes, 
l)eople,  of  not  far  from  1520,  which  indicates  that  ^"""" 
they  had  looked  within  the  gulf  both  at  the  north  and  at  the 


:  I 


If*. 


!pr 


12 


FJiOM  COLUMBUS   TO  C ARTIER, 


south,  but  not  far  enough  to  discover  its  oi>en  and  extensive 
channels.  If  wo  are  to  believe  the  interpretation  which  some 
have  put  upon  a  voyage  ascribed  to  Joilm  Alvarez  Fagundes  at 
this  time,  the  Portuguese  had  attained  far  more  knowledge  of 
this  inner  gulf  than  this  anonymous  chart  indicates.  Indeed, 
a  map,  made  in  15G3  by  Lazaro  Luiz,  has  been  put  forward  as 
indicating  just  what  Fagimdes  had  done ;  and  this  clearly  gives 
him  the  credit  of  unveiling  the  hydrograj)hy  of  the  gulf,  so 
that  his  results  might  be  considered  to  exceed  in  accuracy  those 
of  Cartier  in  his  first  voyage.  This  map  of  Luiz  makes  the 
shores  of  the  gulf  complete,  except  a  portion  of  the  inner  coast  of 
Newfoundland,  and  even  gives  the  St.  Lawrence  River  for  a  long 
distance  from  its  mouth.  Being  made  forty  years  and  more  after 
Fugundes,  the  draftsman  had  the  temptation  to  embody  later 
results ;  and  the  map  naturally  starts  the  question  of  how  nmch 


v^uikiu 


1  J>^^^ 


LAZARO  LUIZ. 

[A  Sketch  of  the  Map  in  Bettencourt's  Descohrimentos  dos  Portuguezes  (Lisbon,  1881-82).] 

of  this  posterior  knowledge  was  embodied  in  it.  Since  Betten- 
court  in  his  Descohrimentos  dos  Portuguczes  brought  forward 
this  map,  in  1881-82,  its  pretensions  in  this  respect  have  been 
studied,  and  often  questioned ;  but  Dr.  Patterson,  a  recent  Nova 
Scotian  writer,  has  advocated  its  claims ;  and  Ilarrisse  in  his 
last  book,  I7ie  Discovery  of  North  America,  has  committed  him« 


THE  FAGUNDES   VOYAGE. 


13 


FnKiindei's 


self  to  a  belief  in  the  Fagundes  explorations.  The  unqiit'S- 
tioned  facts  are  these :  Ancient  documents  mention  the  voyage 
as  being  for  the  purpose  of  establishing  a  fishing-station.  The 
Portuguese  king  had  also  promised  Fagundes  control  by  patent 
of  the  regions  which  in  this  tentative  voyage  he  should  dis- 
cover. On  Fagundes's  return  he  rejjorted  what  he 
had  found;  and  in  accordance  with  his  report,  his  report" 
king,  March  13,  1521,  granted  to  him  these  lands, 
supposed  to  be  a  new  discovery.  This  patent  describes  them, 
presumably  in  accordance  with  Fagundes's  report;  and  it  is 
this  description,  taken  in  conjunction  with  the  Luiz  map,  which 
must  enable  us  to  say  where  Fagundes  had  been. 

The  language  of  the  patent,  not  as  clear  as  we  might  wish, 
says  that  the  coast  which  he  had  found  lay  north  of  those 
known  to  the  Spaniards  and  south  of  that  visited  by  Cortereal, 
which  would  put  it  between  Newfoundland  and  perhaps  the 
Chesapeake,  or  possibly  a  region  a  little  farther  north  than  the 
Chesaj^eake.  The  assigned  country  includes,  as  the  patent 
says,  the  Bay  of  Auguada,  which  contains  three  islands ;  a 
stretch  of  coast  where  are  other  islands,  which  Fagundes  had 
named  St.  John,  St.  Peter,  St.  Ann,  St.  Anthony,  and  an 
archipelago,  also  named  by  him  the  Eleven  Thousand  Virgins ; 
an  island  "  close  to  the  bank,"  which  ho  called  Santa  Cruz,  and 
a  second  island  called  St.  Ann.  The  patent  closes  with  grant- 
ing all  these  islands  and  lands  to  their  discoverer. 

On  a  coast  so  crowded  with  islands  and  bays  as  that  of 
Maine  and  New  Brunswick,  —  apparently  the  "  firm  land  "  of 
the  description,  —  we  need  more  details  than  the  patent  gives 
us  to  determine  beyond  dispute  the  geographical  correspon- 
dences of  these  names.  The  inscription  "  Lavrador  q  descobrio 
Joaom  Alverez  [Fagundes]  "  is  on  the  Luiz  map,  placed  on  the 
peninsula  formed  by  the  St.  Lawrence  Gulf  and  the  Atlantic. 
This,  in  the  opinion  of  Harrisse,  requires  the  Baya  d'  Auguada, 
which  is  described  as  having  a  northeast  and  southwest  exten- 
sion, to  be  none  other  than  the  St.  Lawrence  Gulf.  That  writer 
is  convinced  that  the  bay  was  named  the  Watering  Bay,  be- 
cause Fagundes  must  have  gone  through  it  to  the  outlet  of  its 
great  river  to  fill  his  water-casks.  He  also  allows  that  the 
three  islands  of  this  bay  may  possibly  have  been  Prince  Ed- 
ward, Anticosti,  and  Orleans ;  since  these  islands  in  the  Luiz 


ii  ? 


14 


FROM   COLUMBUS    TO  C ARTIER. 


map  are  all  colored  yellow,  like  a  PortugucHo  escutcheon  placed 
on  tlu)  map.  ThiH,  however,  would  have  carried  FagtuulcH  up 
the  St.  Lawrence  Kiver  farther  than  liarrisse  is  inclined  to  be> 
lieve ;  and  he  would  rather  substitute  for  the  island  of  Orleans 
the  Magdalen  group  or  some  peninsula  of  the  gulf  mistaken  for 
an  island.  liarrisse  also  applies  rather  n(>atly  what  may  be 
termed  the  **  liturgical "  tost  in  respect  to  all  the  names  men- 
tioned in  the  patent ;  and  he  finds  that  the  corresponding  saints' 
days  in  the  Roman  calendar  run  from  June  21  to  October  21. 
This  would  seem  to  indicate  that  it  was  in  the  summer  and 
autumn,  probably  in  1520,  when  these  names  were  applied,  in 
accordance  with  a  habit,  common  with  explorers  in  those  days, 
of  naming  landmarks  after  the  saint  on  whose  day  they  were 
discovered.  Another  proof  of  the  voyage,  also  worked  out  by 
the  same  writer,  is  that  names  which  appear  on  no  map  ante- 
dating this  patent  are  later  found  for  this  coast  on  the  maps 
known  by  the  name  of  Maiollo  (1527),  Verrazano  (1529),  Vie- 
gas  (1534),  Harleyan  (1542),  Cabot  (1544),  Freire  (154G), 
and  Descelliers  (1550). 

This  is  the  nature  of  the  evidence  which  makes  liarrisse  give 
FapiiKies's  ^  map,  tracking  the  progress  of  Fagundes  from  the 
track.  ^jjj^g  jjg  passed  near  the  islands  of    St.  Pierre  and 

Miquelon.  By  this  it  would  appear  that  he  coasted  north  the 
west  shore  of  Newfoundland,  and  at  the  Straits  of  Belle  Isle 
turned  and  followed  the  Labrador  coast  well  within  the  St. 
Lawrence  River,  and  then  returning,  skirted  the  New  Bruns- 
wick coast,  that  of  Prince  Edward  Island,  Cape  Breton,  and 
Nova  Scotia  to  the  entrance  of  the  Bay  of  Fundy,  where  he 
bore  away  seaward,  and  returned  to  Portugal.  Few,  we  sus- 
pect, will  accept  this  route  of  Fagundes  as  proved.  Most  will 
be  content  to  acknowledge  the  fact  of  an  acquaintance  with  the 
gulf  and  its  neighboring  waters  rather  than  such  an  extent  of 
the  acquaintance. 

The  advocates  of  these  Portuguese  anticipations  of  Cartier 
point  to  the  melons  and  cucumbers  which  that  navigator  found 
among  the  natives  of  the  gulf  region  as  indicating  that  Euro- 
peans had  left  the  seeds  of  such  fruits  among  them.  They  also 
think  that  Cartier's  own  recitals  leave  the  inij^ression  that  the 
Indians  of  the  St.  Lawrence  had  become  used  to  Eui'opean 
contact  before  his  advent.     It  is  known,  however,  that  the  In- 


THK    WKSTKHN   llARIUKIi. 


15 


(linns  of  tho  interior  had  long  b««'n  use*!  to  rosort  to  the  shoreH 
of  the  ^ulf  and  itH  vicinity  during  the  8uinuu  <  seanon  ;  and  it 
is  not  unlikely  that  by  this  habit,  as  well  an  by  a  eonunon  cus- 
tom of  intertribal  ooniniunication,  the  ways  of  KuropeuuM  wore 
not  unknown  in  tho  interior. 


A  belief  in  a  comparatively  short  stretch  of  unknown  sea  sep- 


\ 

MAR.VlSTO.ftLOS 
CASTtLHAUOS 


IlLkltO* 


V 


KAbDtCASTELROi"-'^"M 

t 
r 


*'"V 


Brasill 


%&?■* 


POnTUOUESE  CHART,  15.!0. 
[After  a  Sketch  i  i  liuge'alCartogniphie  vonAmerika.l 


arating  the  Azores  from  Cathay  had  been  no  small  inducement 
to  Columbus  to  make  his  hazardous  voyage.   Now  that 
the  land  to  the  west  had  i)roved  so  far  a  barrier  to  a  ue»tai  »»r- 
farther  westward  way,  it  was  in  turn  no  small  induce- 
ment to  those  prompted  to  pierce  this  barrier  to  believe  that 
the  land  which  confronted  them  was  even  narrower  than  the 


16 


FROM  COLUMBUS   TO   C ARTIER. 


ocean  had  been  thought  to  be.  Balboa  had  proved  how  nar- 
row the  land  was  at  Panama,  and  Cortes  had  shown  that  it 
was  not  wide  in  Mexico.     How  wide  was  it  farther  north  ? 

Columbus  had  suspected  that  South  America  was  of  conti- 
nental extent,  because  of  the  great  volume  of  water  which  the 
Orinoco  poured  into  the  Gulf  of  Paria.  Ships  when  out  of 
sight  of  land  had  filled  their  water-casks  from  the  water  poured 
out  by  the  Amazon,  which  told  of  an  immense  inland  drainage. 
None  of  the  early  navigators  remarked  upon  anything  of  the 
kind  at  the  north.  The  flow  of  the  Mississippi  did  not  seem 
to  impress  them  as  indicating  an  enormous  valley  towards  its 
source.     The  early  maps  given  to  portraying  its  supposed  sys- 


.0..V       oVooh° 


COPPO,  1528. 
[After  Kretsclimer.] 

tem  of  drainage  represent  it  as  very  scant.  On  the  eastern  sea- 
board of  the  northern  continent  the  Alleghany  range  rendered 
it  impossible  for  any  river  to  have  a  very  large  volume  of  water. 
It  was  only  when  one  got  as  far  north  as  the  St.  La\v'i  3nce  Gulf, 
and  even  into  its  inner  reaches,  that  evidence  such  as  had  been 
indicative  on  the  coast  of  South  America  could  have  suggested 
a  vast  continental  area  at  the  north.  Therefore,  before  this 
revelation  was  made  in  the  St.  Lawrence  River,  it  is  not  strange 
that  there  were  current  views  against  the  continental  character 
of  the  region  lying  north  of  the  Mexican  gulf  and  west  of  the ' 
country  discovered  by  Cabot  and  the  Cortereals.     Some  would 


;'i 


THE  SEA    OF  VERRAZANO. 


17 


ill 


believe  that  it  was  no  continent  at  all,  but  only  an  immense 
archipelago,  filled  with  i)assages,  if  they  could  only  be  found. 
Coppo  had  mapped  it  in  this  way  in  1528.  Others  had  followed 
Oviedo  in  supposing  that  the  land  at  the  north,  at  one  place  at 
least,  was  as  narrow  as  it  was  at  Panama ;  for  this  historian,  in 
1526,  in  his  Sumario,  had  first  given  published  indication  of 
what  was  for  many  years  following  known  as  the  Sea  of  Verra- 
This  expanse  of  water  was  imagined  to  fill  the  space 


zano. 


VERRAZANO. 
[A  part  of  Brevoort's  Fac-simile.] 

now  known  to  be  occupied  by  the  two  great  valleys  of  the 
upper  Mississippi  and  the  Great  Lakes  ;  while  its  easternmost 
waves  nearly  broke  through  the  land,  to  mingle  its  waters  with 
the  Atlantic  somewhere  along  the  eastern  seaboard  of  the  jjres- 
ent  United  States. 

The  supposition  of  this  mysterious  sea  arose  from  an  inter- 
pretation of  Verrazano's  experiences  on  the  coast  in  vomuano, 
1524,  which  constitute  the  first  decided  and  official  '•'■'-^• 


111 


* 


18 


FROM  COLUMBUS   TO  C ARTIER. 


manifestation  of  French  activity  in  the  new  regions.  This  navi- 
gator is  supposed  to  have  become  acquainted  with  the  coast 
from  Spanish  Florida  to  the  seaboard  of  Maine ;  and  his  ex- 
plorations were  held  iu  later  times  to  be  the  basis  of  the  French 
claim  to  territory  in  the  New  World.  Freville,  in  his  Me- 
moire  on  the  commerce  of  Rouen,  prints  a  paper  by  Admiral 
Chabot,  which  shows  that  for  a  while  it  had  been  the  inten- 
tion of  Francis  I.  to  follow  up  this  voyage  of  Verrazano.  The 
political  exigencies  in  which  that  French  king  found  himself 
involved  had  caused  delays;  and  his  attention  was  not  again 
seriously  given  to  such  efforts  until  he  commissioned  Cartier, 
ten  years  later.  During  this  decade  Verrazano's  notion  of  this 
sea  beyond  the  barrier  had  become  the  belief  of  a  school  of 
geographers ;  and  the  believers  in  it  found  it  not  difficult  to 
count  the  chances  good  of  reaching  it  by  a  strait  at  some  point 
along  the  Atlantic  coast. 

There  have  been  two  maps  brought  into  prominence  of  late 
years,  which  reflect  this  belief.  One  is  the  map  of 
verrazano  Hierouomo  da  Verrazano,  preserved  in  the  College 
of  the  Propaganda  at  Rome,  made  by  his  brother 
not  long  after  the  voyage  of  that  navigator.  His  chart  shows 
this  sea  as  a  great  watery  wedge  lying  athwart  the  interior  of 
the  undeveloped  North  America,  and  pointing  with  its  apex  to 
a  narrow  strip  of  land  somewhere  in  the  latitude  of  Carolina. 
Indeed,  one  might  suppose  that  the  sailor  brother  of  the  cartog- 
rapher had  described  to  him  a  stretch  of  sea  with  an  obscure 
distance,  as  he  saw  it  above  the  dunes  in  the  neighborhood  of 
Cape  Hatteras ;  while  the  cartographer  himself  had  given  his 
fancy  play  in  extending  it  to  the  west.  The  other  map  has 
been  brought  within  ten  years  to  help  elucidate  this  transient 
faith  in  such  a  western  sea.  This  second  chart  had  long  been 
known  in  the  Ambrosian  Library  at  Milan  as  the  work  of  the 
Visconte  Maggiolo  (Maiollo)  ;  but  its  full  import  had  not  been 
suspected,  since  it  bore  the  apparent  date  of  1587.  The  Abbe 
Ceriani  had  discovered  its  true  date  to  be  1527,  and  that  some- 
body had  changed,  iu  sport  or  in  mischief,  the  figure  2  into  8. 
Signor  Desimoni,  the  archivist  of  Genoa,  who  was  at  this  time 
working  on  the  Verrazano  problem,  happening  in  the  library, 
was  struck  with  the  coast  lines  and  legends  on  the  map  as  being 
similar  to  those  of  the  Propaganda   map,  with  which  he  was 


\Msi 


THE  SEA   OF   VERRAZANO. 


19 


familiar ;  and  he  first  brought  the  Maggiolo  map  to  the  atten- 
tion of  students  in  1882. 

The  Sea  of  Verrazano  is  much  the  same  in  the  two  maps,  and 


tlieir  delineations  of  this  oceanic  delusion  marked  for  a  good 
many  years  yet  to  come  a  prevailing  opinion  as  to  the  kind  of 
goal  the  searchers  for  a  western  passage  were  striving  to  reach. 


iili 


m 


i 

1 

IT  • 

'■1' 

m 


20 


FROM  COLUMBUS    TO   CARTIER. 


chal 

fori 

Carl 

^\ 

Seal 

Fral 
was! 


geos 


MICHAEL  LOK,  1582. 


iLi 


ASIATIC  EXTENSION  OF  AMERICA. 


21 


The  sarue  sea  is  found  in  the  well-known  English  map  of  Mi- 
chael Lok,  published  by  Hakluyt  so  late  as  1582, — or  nearly 
forty  years  after  the  close  of  the  series  of  explorations  which 
Cartier  conducted. 

While  it  is  probable  that  such  supposed  conditions  as  this 
Sea  of  Verrazano  supplied  were  a  considerable  incentive  to 
Francis  I.  to  renew  his  interest  in  explorations,  the  problem 
was  complicated  by  another  view  which  an  eminent  German 
oeoorapher  had  espoused,  and  which  had  already  been  engaging 
attention  for  some  ten  years.  The  conditions  of  political  and 
social  life  which  Cortes  had  found  in  Mexico  had  revived  the 
old  hope  that  Cathay  had  at  last  been  found ;  and  the  reports 
of  the  conquerors  which  were  sent  to  Europe,  with  all  their 
exaggerations,  were  welcomed  as  far  more  nearly  conforming  to 
the  descriptions  of  Marco  Polo  than  anything  which  had  been 
discovered  among  the  West  Indies  or  on  the  South  American 
coasts.  If  the  region,  then,  which  Cortes  had  subdued  was  in 
truth  Asia,  the  ocean  which  Magellan  had  crossed  made  an  in- 
dependent continent  of  South  America  only ;  while  the  north- 
ern spaces,  instead  of  being  an  archipelago  or  a  continental 
barrier,  must  be  simply  an  eastern  extension  of  Asia,  and  its 
coast  must  border  on  the  north  Atlantic. 

It  is  known  from  the  text  of  a  little  geographical  treatise 
(1533)  which  has  survived,  that  Schbner,  a  famous 
globe-maker  of  Germany,  had  made  a  terrestrial  AriaUc'* 
sphere  in  1523 ;  but  it  has  not  probably  come  down  *  '**"^* 
to  us.  Some  gores  which  were  discovered  a  few  years  ago  have 
been  held  by  Henry  Stevens  and  others  to  belong  to  this  globe ; 
but  they  delineate  North  America  as  a  distinct  continent,  just 
as  it  was  delineated  in  other  globes  by  Schoner  of  an  earlier 
date,  which  are  well  known.  It  is  denied,  however,  by  Norden- 
skiiild,  that  these  gores  can  be  of  so  early  a  date  as  1523,  and 
he  places  them  more  than  twenty  years  later.  Harrisse  has 
later  still  examined  the  claim,  and  contends  that  the  gores  can- 
not possibly  be  those  by  Schoner  of  this  date,  because  it  seems 
apparent  from  his  treatise  that  the  globe  of  1523  must  have 
been  made  in  accordance  with  the  theory  of  an  Asiatic  exten- 
sion for  North  America.  If  this  was  so,  —  and  Harrisse's 
reasons  are  not  without  effect,  —  this  theory  of  an  Asiatic  ex- 
tension in  North  America  is  traced  to  Schbner  as  its  originator, 


I; 

I; 

I .; 

■  (■* 


'•'; 


l! 

a 


^4  H' 

i  r 

M    "I 


,i'    •! 


•:;«; 


ill' 
ill 


22 


FROM  COLUMBUS   TO  C ARTIER. 


80  far  as  is  known.  If  it  is  a  matter  of  contention  as  respects 
Schoner,  it  is  certain  as  regards  a  little  figure  of  a  globe  made 
by  Franciscus  Monachus  in  1526,  which  unmistakably  repre- 
Franciscu*  scnts  North  America  as  a  part  of  Asia.  This  the- 
Monachu..  ^^^  g^^  ^  ^^^  advocatc  in  Orontius  Finseus  in  1531, 
who,  however,  so  far  departed  from  the  view  held  by  Francis- 
cus as  to  unite  South  America  to  the  northern  continent  by  the 
Isthmus  of  Panama,  while  the  other  had  placed  a  strait  to  the 
north  of  that  connection.  This  theory  was  made  prominent  in 
so  well  known  a  treatise  as  the  Novus  Orbis  of  Grynseus, 


FRANCISCUS  MONACHUS,  1520. 
[After  Sketch  in  Kretschmer's  Alias."] 

where  the  map  of  Orontius  appeared ;  and  at  intervals  through 
that  century  and  into  the  next,  other  expressions  of  this  view 
appeared  in  prominent  maps. 

If  Cartier  or  his  royal  master  had  entertained  the  expecta- 
tion that  his  expedition  might  penetrate  into  the  heart  of  north- 
ern Asia  when  it  started  for  tlit)  gulf  back  of  Newfoundland,  it 
is  altogether  probable  that  its  equipment  would  not  have  been 
undertaken.  It  is  far  more  likely  that  the  faith  which  the  ear- 
lier expedition  of  Verrazano  had  developed  in  the  narrowness 
of  the  northern  continent  prevailed  at  Paris  and  St.  Malo  when 
Cai'tier  started  on  his  fateful  voyage. 


lit 


Sources. 


CHAPTER  II. 

CARTIER,    ROBEUVAL,    AND   ALLEFONSCE. 

1534-1542. 

The  story  of  the  personal  career  of  Cartier,  separate  from  his 
American  explorations,  is  not  an  extended  one.  Mod 
ern  writers  have  in  the  main  gone  back  to  the  J/e 
moire  which  Charles  Cunat  prepared  for  a  general  biogi-aphical 
account  of  the  Breton  race.  Here  Hoefer  went  for  details  used 
in  his  great  dictionary,  and  D'Avezac  and  Rame  for  what  they 
have  said  in  editing  the  documents  pertaining  to  Cartier's  ca- 
reer. Harrisse  in  his  Cahots  has  done  something  to  elucidate 
the  bibliography  of  the  subject ;  but  the  most  important  ci*iti- 
cal  examination  of  Cartier's  life  is  made  in  rran(;ois  Joiion 
des  Longrais's  Jacques  Cartier  (Paris,  1888).  The  researches 
of  this  writer  were  too  late  for  the  use  of  Dr.  De  Costa  in  the 
Narrative  and  Critical  History  of  America  (vol.  iv.),  but 
have  been  followed  by  three  recent  prize  essayists  on  the  theme : 
Joseph  Pope  (Ottawa,  1890),  in  English ;  Hiram  B.  Stephens 
(Montreal,  1890),  also  in  English;  and  N.  E.  Dionne  (Quebec, 
1889),  in  French. 

Longrais's  inquiries  show  Cartier  to  have  been  an  older  man 
by  three  years  than  had  been  supposed,  or  a  man  of  forty -three 
instead  of  forty,  when  he  sailed  from  St.  Malo,  April  20,  1534, 
with  the  aim  of  raising  the  French  arms,  as  an  act  of  posses- 
sion, in  the  neighborhood  of  the  Square  Gulf  of  Sylvanus. 
Kornian,  Breton,  and  Basque  had  been  frequenters  of  its  shores 
for  many  years.  These  mariners  were  to  find  it  hereafter  within 
the  jurisdiction  of  their  common  monarch. 

Just  what  constituted  Cartier's  fitness  to  carry  out  the  behests 
of  the  French  king  is  only  apparent  as  an  inference  cartier' 
from  the  fact  that  Admiral  Chabot,  eager  companion  '"*'^'y 
of  Francis,  and  sharing  his  ambition  and  confidence,  hit  upon 


g 

career. 


'1 

! 

li.: 

f 

■    )  ; 

'i'   ! 


:i''! 


\  4 


i.              ! 

\4 

VJ;  \\\  ■% 

■,                        ! 

\    . 

.,■1 

s ; 

t 

24 


C ARTIER,  ROBERVAL,  AND  ALLEFONSCE. 


•  i 


HIb  voyage, 
1534. 


Cartier  as  the  instrument  to  place  France  on  an  equality  with 
her  maritime  rivals.  Some  of  the  contemporary  records  call 
Cartier  a  corsair,  which  means  that  he  had  roved  the  seas  to 
despoil  the  enemies  of  France.  There  is  a  probability  that  he 
had  voyaged  at  one  time  to  Brazil.  When  he  was  married,  in 
1519,  he  had  risen  high  enough  in  his  profession  to  be  called  a 
master  pilot. 

We  know  that  when  Cartier  shipped  his  crew,  a  voyage  of 
discovery  had  fewer  attractions  than  the  better  paying 
occupations  of  fishing  and  trading  on  the  Newfound- 
land coasts.  They  preserve  at  St.  Malo  to-day  a  list  of  those 
finally  brought  to  sign  the  ships'  papers,  which  were  made  out 
in  Cartier's  own  hand.  He  superintended  the  equipment  of  his 
two  vessels  of  sixty  tons  each,  and  when  all  his  men  were  piped 
to  duty  they  numbered  sixty-one  souls. 

That  Cartier  was  bound  for  the  land  lying  beyond  the  New- 
foundland banks,  and  for  the  water  which  that  island  inclosed, 
conveyed,  very  likely,  varying  notions  to  the  crews  of  the  fishing 
craft  then  afloat  in  this  Norman  harbor.  We  have  no  know- 
ledge that  Cartier  started  with  any  charts ;  but  he  could  hardly 
have  been  denied  the  help  of  the  rough  sketches  of  the  coasts, 
which  many  a  fisherman,  habituated  to  the  region,  could  have 
made  for  him.  If  such  charts  embodied  information  which  they 
had  shared  with  the  Portuguese,  whom  they  were  accustomed  to 
meet  on  those  fishing-grounds,  we  may  look  to  the  chart  of  Vie- 
gas  of  this  same  year  (1534),  which  has  come  down  to  us,  as 
indicating,  perhaps,  the  notions  then  pi-evalent  respecting  this 
inner  sea  at  the  back  of  Newfoundland.  This  chart  certainly 
shows  but  an  inadequate  conception  of  its  great  expanse,  and 
makes  the  gulf  open  to  the  sea  at  the  south,  and  not  at  the 
north.  Cartier's  course  in  his  voyage  hardly  accords  with  such 
a  belief  on  his  part. 

It  was  a  rugged  port,  this  St.  Malo,  with  ics  crowded  pe- 
ninsular town,  jutting  out  to  form  a  harbor,  in  and  out 
of  which  thirty  or  forty  feet  of  water  rushed  with  the 
tide,  leaving  the  vessels  at  the  ebb  keeled  upon  the  ribbed  sand. 
The  place  had  a  reputation  for  hardy  seamen,  and  Jacques  Car- 
tier  was  then  its  boast,  and  has  been  ever  since.  Whin  his  ves- 
sels, that  April  day,  righted  with  the  flood  and  their  booms 
creaked  to  the  vigorous  pull  of  their  crews,  and  the  gazing 


St.  Mulo. 


NEWFOUNDLAND. 


25 


idlers  along  the  shore  waved  their  farewells  to  St.  Malo's  mari- 
time hero,  it  was  doomed  that  he  should  give  the  great  interior 
of  a  new  continent  to  an  aspiring  rival  of  Spain,  Portugal,  and 
England. 


OxJlre^ctntUf 


I  Nevrfoundland  and  tl?c6ulfoF5t.Lavvrrcnceby 

CASPAR  VIEGAS. 
[After  a  Sketch  in  Kohl's  Discover \j  of  3Iain€.'] 

Cartier  experienced  rough  weather  as  he  made  the  coast  of 
Newfoundland,  in  the  neighborhood  of   Cape  Bona-  At  New- 
vista  (May  10),  and  he  was  obliged  to  seek  a  harbor  X^^f' 
to  make  repairs.     Kohl,  in  his  Discovery  of  liable^  ^^^' 
thinks  that  if  Cartier  had  known  of  the  southern  entrance  to 
the  gulf,  with  its  seventy-five  miles  of  breadth,  he  would  now 
have  sought  it.     After  he  had  completed  his  repairs  he  did,  in 
fact,  turn  north  and  not  south,  and  on  May  27  he  was  at  the 


,1.1 


•Mi 


m 


f;;; 


v," 

;i 

■iii. 


f ;  1 
•-.1, 
ill' 


Kif 


ili 


20 


CA  It  TIER,   It  OBlUi  VA  L,   A  ND  A  LLJuFOXSC/:. 


In  tlie  Riilf. 


July,  153-1. 


opening  of  the  Stmits  of  Belle  Isle.  This  was  a  region  familiar 
to  the  fishermen,  although  one  would  not  suspeet  it  from  the 
Viegas  chart,  and  in  the  harbors  of  the  Labrador  coast  within 
the  i)assage  their  ships  had  been  long  aeeustomed  to  find  ref- 
use in  bad  weather.  It  was  somewhere  hero  that  Cartier  mot 
a  ship  from  La  Koehelle.  lie  saw  also  some  of  the  natives  of 
the  region.  The  country  seemed  to  him  to  bo  forbidding,  so 
he  turned  his  prows  south,  and  tracked  the  inner  coast 
of  Newfoundland  till  near  the  point  opposite  Cape 
]iret(m.  Cartier  was  thus  the  earliest  to  define  this  coast,  and 
if  the  explorations  of  Fagundes  are  allow<;d,  that  Portuguese 
navigator  seems  not  to  have  outlined  this  rei>ellant  shore.  Car- 
tier  now  steered  westerly  and,  passing  the  Magdalene  Islands, 
reached  the  shore  of  Prince  E<lward  Island ;  whence,  heading 
north  (July  2),  he  made  the  liay  of  C'haleur,  a  name 
which  he  now  gave  to  that  inlet  in  recognition  of  the 
great  heat  which  he  experienced  (^July  8).  Still  proceeding 
northward,  he  struck  the  coast  of  Anticosti  Island,  and,  round- 
ing its  eastern  i)oint,  followed  its  northern  shore  almost  to  its 
western  head.  Here  tlie  ships  turned  and,  skirting  backward 
the  dreary  shores  of  Labrador,  finally  emerged  into  the  ocean 
by  tlie  strait  which  had  led  them  in,  ami  bore  away  for  France. 
There  are  landmarks  along  this  passage  through  the  g^'.lf 
which  earlier  visitors  had  perha})s  named.  Others  still  bear  the 
designations  whicli  Cartier  bestowed.  His  own  account  and 
these  geographical  traces  make  pretty  clear  the  general  direction 
which  he  took ;  but  in  ])arts  the  record  is  obscure  as  to  details, 
and  there  is  much  difference  of  opinion  among  investigators, 
particularly  as  to  his  track  across  the  gulf  from  New- 
foundland to  Prince  Edward  Island  and  the  mainland 
of  New  Brunswick.  Kohl,  Do  Costa,  Ganong,  Bourinot,  and 
others  have  exercised  their  ingenuity  ui)on  the  j)roblem.  It 
seems  probable  that  familiarity  with  these  waters  and  a  close 
study  of  Cartier's  text  are  safer  for  an  inipiiry  than  the  deduc- 
tions of  the  Euroi)ean  cartographers,  even  of  the  earlier  time. 
The  study,  however,  is  curious  rather  than  ini])ortant. 

Just  where  the  coast  of  Gaspe  juts  to  sever  the  gulf  from  its 
great  affluent,  Cartier  erected  a  cross  and  took  possession  of 
the  country  for  his  king.  It  was  at  this  point  that  he  entrapiied 
two  ludians,  who  were  to  serve  him  as  inter])reters  during  his 


His  tr.ick. 


CAHTIER'S  FIIIST   VOYAdK. 


27 


next  voyaj^e,  for  they  were  nativcH  of  Ji  roj^ion  high  up  tho 
St.  Lawrence,  wlio  had  come  down  for  the  Hsliing  season.  It 
was  on  the  i)assage  from  this  point  to  Anticosti,  in  which  he 
struck  across  the  great  tide  rolling  from  the  St.  liawrence,  that 
lie  seems  to  have  been  unconscious  of  missing  tho  portal  that 
opened  two  thousand  miles  of  waterway  through  the  interior  of 
the  continent.  When  he  went  to  the  north  of  Anticosti  and 
reached  its  western  end,  he  failed  to  discover  that  lie  had  nearly 
circumnavigated  an  island,  and  was  again  at  a  lesser  portal  of 
tlie  great  river. 

Cartier  was  nearly  two  months  and  a  half  in  maki;ig  this 
circuit  of  the  gulf,     lie  passed  out  to  sea  on  Atigust  jj,,,.^  ;„  j^t. 
15,  and  early  in  September  he  reentered  the  harbor  of  fpl'J",;*'''" 
St.  Male.      He  could  report  little  success  in  discov-  ^'''^• 
crinf  a  passage  to  Cathay,  but  he  had  done  more,  perhaps,  to 
map  the  gulf  than  any  of  his  predecessors,  and  he  had  laid  the 
foundations  of  its  future  cartography.     So  the  expedition  was 
not  altogether  futile,  and  he  returned  with  some  enthusiasm 
left,  —  enough  at  least  to  throw  spirit  into  his  story,  and  reas- 
sure his  superiors  that  the  prospect  was  still  hopeful. 


One  would  like  to  think  that,  in  following  the  events  of  this 
voyage,  he  had  beyond  a  doubt  been  depending  on  a  recital  by 
Cartier  himself.  If  Kame,  a  recent  editor  of  the  documents,  is 
not  deceived,  they  preserve  at  St.  Malo  the  actual  register  of 
his  companions,  to  which  reference  has  already  been  made.  A 
similar  authentication  can  hardly  be  held  to  attach  to  Narrative  of 
that  one  of  several  manuscripts,  professing  to  tell  the  "'**  ^"y^e- 
story  of  this  initial  voyage  of  Canadian  discovery,  upon  which 
we  are  most  inclined  to  depend.  It  was  placed  first  before  the 
])ublic  in  1867,  and  if  there  is  here  and  there  a  demur  to  its 
being  Cartier's  own  text,  it  can  at  least  be  trusted  better  than 
any  other.  We  trace  other  contemporary  accounts  in  the  main 
back  to  the  narrative  in  Ramusio ;  but  no  one  of  all  these  is 
so  distinctly  phrased  that  the  student  can  be  quite  sure  in  .all 
details  of  Cartier's  course  when  once  he  had  entered  the  gulf. 

Within  two  months  after  Cartier's  return  to  St.  Malo,  he  had 
interested  the  vice-admiral,  Charles  de  Mouy,  in  a  new  voyage, 
and  the  king  had  been  induced  to  sign  a  commission  at  the  end 


l:l'l 


fl 


I 


28 


Hi 


■    if 


CARTIEli,   JWBEliVAL,  AND  ALLEFONSCE. 


of  October  (1534)  giving  Carticr  authority  to  make  further 
explorations.  lie  was  tolil  to  take  fifteen  months  for  the  trial. 
v...vnKeof  ^ ^*^  was  allowctl  three  vessels,  the  "Grande  Herniine," 
1530.  jjf  pj^riiaps   a   hundred  and  twenty  tons,  which  car- 

ried his  Hag;  the  "Petite  Ilermine,"  of  sixty  tons,  under  Mace 
Jalobert ;  and  a  small  galley,  the  "  Emerillon,"  of  forty  tons, 
of  which  Guillaumo  le  Breton  Bastille  had  the  command. 

Cartier  nuistered  for  this  cruise  a  company  of  one  hundred 
and  ten  persons,  of  whom  we  know  the  names  of  eighty-four. 
This  crew  was  not  altogether  a  worthy  one,  for  the  dangerous 
plan  of  impressing  criminals  had  been  followed.  It  is  a  little 
incongruous  with  such  a  following  to  find  the  commander  writ- 
ing to  his  sovereign  that  he  looked  upon  his  enteri)riso  as  one 
likely  to  open  new  fields  for  Christian  endeavor.  The  looker-on 
must  have  beheld  a  motley  crowd  when  Cartier  led  his  men 
to  church  on  AVhit-Sunday  (May  16,  1535)  to  make  confession 
and  receive  the  benediction  of  the  bishop. 

Three  days  later  the  little  fleet  sailed.  The  season  was  bois- 
SaiiH,  May  tcrous,  and  they  had  not  made  land  when  the  vessels 
19, 1.VW.  were  scattered  in  a  gale.  The  little  harbor  of  Blanc 
Sablon,  well  within  the  Straits  of  Belle  Isle  on  the  Labrador 
side,  had  been  made  the  rendezvous.     Cartier  reached  it  first, 

late  in  July,  and  his  other  ships  were  not  long  behind. 

After  three  days  he  led  the  way  westward  along  the 
Labrador  coast,  and  passed  into  the  channel  between  Anticosti 
and  the  main.  Here  on  the  northern  shore  he  entered  a  har- 
bor and  named  it  the  Bay  of  St.  Lawrence,  —  the  first  appear- 
ance of  a  name  (Sainct  Laurens)  in  this  region,  which  was  in 
time  to  be  extended  to  the  great  gulf  and  to  the  river  which 
feeds  it.     On  August  14,  he  sailed  still  westward,  with  spouting 

whales  about  his  track.     lie  seems  now  first  to  have 

comprehended  from  the  two  Indians  whom  he  had  kid- 
napped during  the  previous  year,  and  who  had  picked  up 
enough  French  to  be  communicative,  that  the  southern  shore  of 
this  channel  belonged  to  an  island  which  divided  the  great  pas- 
sage to  the  interior.  Cartier  was  thus  enabled  to  mark  on  his 
chart  the  westernmost  end  of  this  island,  which  he  called  As- 
sumption (August  15).  Passing  on,  he  found  himself  at  last, 
in  the  great  river,  with  hopes  brightening  at  the  prospect  of  its 
great  volume  of  water  proving  to  be  the  long-sought  passage  to 
the  Orient. 


July 


August. 


THE  ST.    LAWliKXCK  lUVKIt. 


29 


S«|iU<iuber. 


As  lit'  paHHod  from  oiu;  short;  to  tho  other,  on  hin  wustwanl 
way,  Cartier  noted  diHtant  mountains  to  thu  Month,  and  saw  thti 
two  banks  of  the  river  gradually  drawing  together.  He  ques- 
tioned his  Indians,  and  learned  that  as  he  went  on  farther  the 
water  would  begin  to  freshen.  It  was  not  a  welcome  thought ; 
and  as  behind  him  thert;  was  a  stretch  of  the  northern  shore 
of  the  river,  which  he  had  misseil  in  crossing  to  the  south,  he 
went  back  on  his  course  in  the  hope  that  he  had  thus  over- 
l(joked  the  main  salt-water  passage.  His  quest  was  futile,  and 
by  the  24th  he  had  doubled  on  this  backward  track  and  was 
once  more  stemming  the  current  of  the  groat  river. 
On  September  1,  he  was  opj)osite  the  mouth  of  the 
Saguenay.  He  met  here  some  natives  in  canoes,  who  were  em- 
boldened by  the  voices  of  Cartier's  Indians  to  come  ah)ngside 
and  i)arley. 

Cartier  left  the  Saguenay  without  exploring  it,  and  continued 
up  the  main  stream  to  the  Isle  auxCoudres.  Here  he  remained 
some  days,  beguiled  with  the  sports  of  the  natives  as  they  eaught 
the  white  whales.  A  religious  service  was  held  on  Sunday 
(September  7),  though  he  seems  to  have  had  no  ])riest  to  con- 
duct it.  Another  stretch  up  the  river  brought  him  to  a  con- 
ference with  Donnacona,  the  leading  chieftain  of  the  region, 
who  told  Cartier  that  he  dwelt  in  Stadacona,  a  place  still  higher 
up.  The  savage  received  the  strangers  with  words  which,  so 
far  as  the  Frenchmen  could  interpret  them,  were  becoming  and 
friendly. 

At  last  the  ships  reached  what  is  now  known  as  the  Island 
of  Orleans,  just  below  the  basin  of  Quebec.  Cartier  saw  vines 
festooning  the  trees,  and  called  it  the  Island  of  Bacchus.  An- 
choring his  vessels  here,  he  proceeded  in  boats  to  find  a  good 
wintering  place,  and  discovered  a  spot  to  his  liking  just  \\\^  the 
stream  which,  flowing  into  the  St.  Lawrence,  forms  the  head- 
land of  Quebec,  —  the  modern  St.  Charles  River.  In  the  north- 
ern parts  of  the  modern  town,  outside  the  walls,  and  where  the 
streets  cover  the  lowlands  south  of  the  St.  Charles,  there  is  a 
peninsula  formed  by  a  loop  of  the  stream.  Opposite  the  head 
of  this  curve,  north  of  the  St.  Charles,  lay  the  ImHan  village 
of   Stadacona,   the   home    of    the   savage    chieftain. 

,  .  11*1  PI  1        Stadai'oua. 

Adjacent  to  it  a  small  rivulet  came  from  the  north, 

and  at  this  point  it  seemed  to  Cartier  that  his  ships  conhl  be 


i  I 


\^ 


I    I 


30 


CARTIEIi,   ROBEiiVAL,    AND  ALLKFONSCE. 


moored  in  security,  and  easily  protected.  So  upon  September 
14  tiie  vessels  were  brought  from  below  and  warped  into  posi- 
tion. It  is  the  general  belief  that  this  little  stream  is  the 
modern  Lairet,  and  as  the  residt  of  an  agitation  beffinninsr  as 
far  back  as  1835,  and  seeking  also  to  honor  the  memory  of  the 
Jesuits,  who  in  1625  built  their  abode  on  the  same  site,  there 
was  erected  a  monument  here  in  1889  to  commemorate  the  so- 
journ of  Cartier,  —  not,  however,  without  some  protest  from 
such  as  believed  that  the  exact  sjjot  was  at  the  confluence  of 
the  St.  Michel,  a  little  farther  up  the  St.  Charles.  The  fact 
that  remains  of  a  vessel  were  found  in  1843  at  the  mouth  of 
the  St.  Michel  has  been  held  by  the  advocates  of  that  spot  as 
showing  Cartier  to  !\ave  abandoned  the  "  Petite  Hermine " 
there,  presumably  near  his  fort ;  but  on  the  other  hand  it  is 
strenuously  denied  that  the  hulk  there  found  could  be  as  old 
as  the  early  part  of  the  sixteenth  century.  De  Caze  and  Di- 
onne,  two  of  the  later  Canadian  antiquaries,  have  taken  issue 
on  the  problem. 


i( 


Cartier's  two  native  interpreters,  finding  themselves  now 
among  friends,  communicated  to  Donnacona  the  intention  of 
Cartier  to  leave  his  vessels  at  this  spot  and  go  himself  higher 
up  the  St.  Lawrence  to  a  place  called  Hochelaga.  The  Indian 
chieftain  much  preferred  to  snatch  the  opportunity  of  barter 
for  the  Frenchmen's  trinkets,  instead  of  letting  it  fall  into  the 
hands  of  a  rival  at  Hochela^;  a,  —  or  at  lesist  such  an  interpre- 
tation of  Donnacona's  disf^r/utent  at  Cartier's  proposal  seems 
the  most  reasonable.  The  savage's  opposition  to  Cartier's  pur- 
pose of  ascending  the  river,  not  a  little  urged  on  by  the  atti- 
tude of  the  interpreters,  seemed  likely,  for  a  while,  to  embroil 
all  parties  in  a  hostile  outbreak.  Though  this  was  avoided 
and  a  sort  of  friendly  pact  was  formed,  Donnacona  resigned 
himself  to  the  thought  very  slowly,  and  not  till  after  he  had 
tried  the  effect  of  artifice  to  enforce  his  jwwers  of  persuasion. 
He  made  some  of  his  people  dress  and  caper  like  devils,  as  if 
they  were  messengers  sent  from  Cudragmy,  the  local  deity  of 
Hochelaga,  to  persuade  the  French  not  to  venture  on  the  hazard 
of  the  trip. 

There  is  a  portrait  of  Cartier  in  the  town  hall  of  St.  Male 
which  the  townspeople  cherish.      It  has  often  been  engraved, 


lyj^ 


CARTIEirS  SECOND    VOYAdE. 


31 


niul  the  fearless  leader  has  been  confidently  seen  in  it.  Park- 
man,  who  saw  it  in  1881,  fonnd  it  reoent  in  origin  and  a  ques- 
tionahle  likeness.  It  looks,  however,  like  a  man  of  courage, 
whom  it  would  take  much  to  intimidate,  and  he  stands  in  con- 
tem})lation,  as  if  he  might  have  been  caught  at  this  moment 
as  his  mind  strengthened  with  a  determination  to  ascend  the 
river  in  spite  of  obstacles. 

So,  leaving  the  body  of  his  followers  in  good  plight  to  I'esist 
attack,  Cartier  took  the  "  Emerillon  "  and  two  boats,  with  fifty 
men  for  an  escort,  and  on  September  19  pulled  out  sp,,toinber 
into  the  St.  Lawrence  and  began  to  breast  the  current.   ''•^'  '''■^" 
Something   of    the  autumnal    joy  conspicuous   in    the  foliage 
buoyed  the  spirits  of  the  adventurers,  and  they  went  on  suc- 
cessfully.    On  the  28th,  they  reached  a  place  where  the  river 
expanded  into  a  lake,  and  in  recognition  of  his  sovereign,  he 
named  it  the  Lake  of  Angouleme,  which  recalls  the  birthjilace 
of  Francis  I.     As  the  river  narrowed  again,  the  currents  be- 
came too  strong  to  force  the  "  Emerillon  "  against  them  ;  so  she 
was  left  behind,  while  Cartier  and  a  body  of  picked  men  went 
on  in  two  boats.     On  October  2,  he  drew  his  boats  up  beside 
a  piece  of  level  land,  out  of  the  current  here  known  as  St. 
Mary's,  and  found  that  he  was  about  three  miles  be-  October. 
low  Ilochelaga.     The  news  of  his  coming  soon  spread,  ^ociieiaga, 
and  the  natives  in  large  numbers  gathered  on  the  shore,  offer- 
ing food  and  manifesting  delight. 

Accompanied  by  five  of  his  principal  officers  and  with  a  de- 
tail of  twenty  men,  Cartier  went  the  next  day  to  the  Indian 
town,  and  was  graciously  received  by  the  chieftain  of  these  sav- 
age hordes.  The  intruders  found  the  settlement  situated  near 
the  base  of  a  high  hill,  and  surrounded  by  cultivated  fields. 
Cartier  and  his  companions  were  led  to  a  gate  in  a  circular  pal- 
isaded village.  Along  this  palisade  they  found  on  the  inner 
side  a  gallery  from  which  missives  could  be  hurled  at  assailants, 
and  piles  of  stones  lay  ready  for  use.  There  is  a  bird's-eye 
view  of  this  town  in  Ramusio.  It  neither  corresponds  very  ex- 
actly with  Cartier's  description,  nor  is  it  wholly  comprehensible 
in  itself. 

We  know  that  nearly  seventy  years  later  Champlain  found 
peojile  and  town  alike  wanting,  and  another  race  possessing  the 
land.    Who  the  people  were  that  Cartier  met  is  a  question  upon 


"HI 


i  ;. 


Al 


J 


IwWwl 


I  III     ! 


32 


CARTIER,   ROBERVAL,   AND  ALLEFONSCE. 


UAJVIL&IO'S  HOCUKLAGA. 


:<\'\ 


AT  MONTREAL. 


33 


which  there  has  been  some  difference  of  opinion.  The  decision 
rests  mainly  upon  the  ethnic  relations  of  the  scant  vocabulary 
which  Cartier  picked  up  and  recorded.  Dawson  has  held  that 
the  words  in  Cartier's  list  have  Algonquin  roots.  The  Abbe 
Faillon  holds  them  to  be  Huron,  and  the  weight  of  opinion 
seems  to  sustain  the  abbe.  The  Hurons  had  given  place  to 
Algonquins  in  the  time  of  Champlain,  as  we  shall  later  see. 

When  Cartier  was  conducted  within  the  gate  of  this  Huron 
village,  he  found  a  public  squai-e,  round  which  the  huts  of  its 
inhabitants  were  grouped.  In  this  space  he  was  welcomed  by 
men,  women,  and  children,  with  signs  of  emotion  and  confidence. 
The  white  strangers  were  evidently  looked  upon  as  superior  be- 
ings, capable  of  healing  by  the  hand,  for  the  palsied  were  brought 
to  be  touched.  The  chieftain  of  the  savages  was  borne  into  the 
throng  upon  the  shoulders  of  men,  and  he  offered  a  shrunken 
limb  to  be  stroked.  In  recognition  of  the  potency  of  the 
Frenchman's  charm,  the  Indian  lifted  his  wreath  of  authority 
from  his  own  head  and  placed  it  upon  the  brow  of  his  visitor. 
Cartiei',  in  fulfillment  of  the  missionary  spirit  which  he  had 
avowed  to  the  French  king,  began  to  repeat  the  Gospel  of  St. 
John.  Then,  making  the  sign  of  a  cross,  he  uttered  a  prayer, 
and  afterwards  read  the  Passion  of  Christ.  It  was  mere  necro- 
mancy to  the  astonished  savages.  There  was  something  they 
could  better  understand  when  the  French  leader  caused  a  dis- 
tribution of  trinkets.  Hatchets  and  knives  were  passed  out  to 
the  dusky  applicants  amid  a  flourish  of  trumpets.  In  view  of 
the  forebodings  of  Donnacona,  it  was  not  the  most  prudent  of 
actions  to  distribute  such  dangerous  largesses. 

Cartier's  eyes  must  all  the  while  have  wandered  away  to  the 
conspicuous  lookout  which  the  neighboring  eminence  afforded. 
He  tells  us  of  its  imposing  character,  when  he  says  that  he  gave 
it  the  name  of  Mont  Royale.  The  capital  town,  which  the  trav- 
eler finds  to-day  on  the  site  of  Hochelaga,  is  a  reminder  of  the 
first  European  who  surveyed  the  site  of  Montreal.  As  Cartier 
gazed  from  the  summit  of  this  hill,  —  for  his  new-found  friends 
soon  conducted  him  thither,  —  he  scanned  the  hazy  distance,  in 
which  on  the  one  hand  the  St.  Lawrence  and  on  the  other 
the  Ottawa  lost  themselves,  and  we  can  well  imagine  that  he 
asked,  "  Which  way  must  I  go  to  seek  Cathay? " 

There  needed  an  earlier  start  in  the  season  than  was  possible 


1 


iri 


''I 

I', 

I  ,1 


i  * 


!'J 


i '  i- 

'ill 

■'  .11 

i  [ 

■  4 

i 

34 


C ARTIER,  ROBERVAL,  AND  ALLEFONSCE. 


now,  to  solve  this  pregnant  question.  October,  with  its  short 
o.tober  (^f^ys»  was  already  advancing,  and  it  was  not  prudent 
^^^-  to  tarry  longer  with  his  new-found  friends.    There  was 

provision  yet  to  make  for  the  winter  in  Stadacona.  So  ex- 
changing courtesies  with  the  savages,  he  pushed  off  his  boats 


and  started  down  the  river  with  the  current.  He  reached  his 
Havre de  g^Hey  ott  Octobcr  4,  and. on  the  11th  he  was  once 
SaiiiteCroix.  jjj^^pg  \^  j.],y  Havre  de  Sainte  Croix,  as  his  station 
on  the  St.  Charles  had  already  been  named.     During  his  three 


WINTER   OF  1535-36. 


35 


\\oek3'  absence,  his  men  had  worked  to  some  advantage.  They 
luul  completed  a  fort  and  had  mounted  some  guns,  and  other 
i)roparatiou  had  been  made  for  the  winter;  but  his  peace  with 
Donuacona  had  still  to  be  strengthened.  He  cultivated  the 
friondship  of  the  savages  by  going  freely  from  one  native  hut 
to  another.  In  this  he  did  not  fail  to  see  that  they  sometimes 
overcame  their  enemies,  for  they  had  a  habit  of  decorating  their 
walls  with  scalps.  He  found,  too,  they  had  provident  habits, 
for  winter  was  not  at  hand  without  their  having  laid  in  stores 
of  supplies.  He  fancied,  too,  they  were  docile  enough  to  re- 
ceive Christian  teaching,  and  he  was  sorry  he  had  not  a  priest 
with  him  to  administer  the  rites  of  the  Church.  He  told  them 
that  he  would  come  again,  and  bring  with  him  holy  men,  who 
could  render  them  such  service. 

The  winter  had  hardly  come  on  in  its  severity  before  a  i)es- 
tileuce  like  scurvy  broke  out  among  the  natives.     It 

iT-iic  A  •  1  Sickness. 

soon  spread  to  the  I^rench  fort.  At  one  tune  there 
were  but  ten  sound  Frenchmen  to  minister  to  the  sick,  and 
twenty-five  of  the  comi)any  died.  They  tried  to  appease  what 
they  thought  an  offended  Deity  by  erecting  crosses.  Weak  and 
well  alike  i)rostrated  thems  Ives  in  the  snow  before  these  holy 
symbols.  They  sought  content  for  the  mind  in  penitential 
hymns,  and  they  supported  each  other  with  mutual  vows. 

All  this,  however,  seemed  to  less  purpose  —  if  we  may  believe 
their  own  accounts  —  than  a  concoction  of  which  they  drank 
freely,  after  the  habit  of  the  natives.  It  was  probably  made 
from  the  bark  of  the  white  pine  {amcdxt).  "If  all  the  physi- 
cians of  Montpelier  and  Louvain  had  administered  all  the  drugs 
of  Alexandria,  the  effect  would  not  have  been  so  good  in  a  year 
as  the  draughts  of  ameda  caused  in  six  days."  So  runs  their 
record,  —  and  it  is  very  likely. 

As  the  spring  came  on,  this  little  company  of  Frenchmen  re- 
covered its  tone.     On  May  3  they  set  up  a  new  cross,   i,r,3,;. 
with  more  jubilation  than  before,  and  i)ut  upon  it  a  ^''""^" 
legend  that  noted  formal  jjossession  of   the  country  for  the 
French  crown :  Franciscus  Primus,  Dei  gratia  Francorum 
Kex  kegxat.     The  first  act  of  sovereignty  exercised  by  the 
representative  of  that  absent  monarch  was  to  lure  the  Donnacona 
local  chieftain  into  a  snare,  and  to  carry  him  and  *''"^'*" 
other  savages  on  board  the  ships.     The  act  was  resented  by 


III 


mt 


I  '  ^ 


''lik 


I  ^ 


I' 


36 


C ARTIER,  ROBERVAL,  AND  ALLEFONSCE. 


Donnacona's  ]>eople,  and  they  offered  ransoms.  The  majesty 
of  France  could  not  condescend  to  bargain,  and  the  savages 
were  put  off  with  a  promise  of  having  their  chieftain  restored 
to  them  the  next  year. 

The  French  had  received  special  kindnesses  from  the  people 
of  a  neighboring  village,  and  in  their  weakened  condition,  find- 
ing it  necessary  for  want  of  a  crew  to  abandon  one  of  their  ves- 
sels, they  gave  the  Petite  "  Hermine  "  to  this  people,  in  order 
that  they  might  profit  by  the  metal  spikes  in  the  hulk.  If  the 
vessel  which  was  found  in  1843  —  as  alreadv  stated — had 
shown  that  the  fastenings  had  been  removed  from  her  timbers, 
there  would  be  more  ground  for  supposing  it  a  relic  of  Cartier's 
fleet. 

On  the  6th  the  French  floated  into  the  St.  Lawrence,  and  set 
sail  for  their  downward  voyage.  After  a  while  they 
Return  voy-  auchorcd,  just  out  of  the  current,  when  the  savages' 
canoes,  which  were  following,  came  up.  The  poor 
creatures  had  not  yet  got  over  clamoring  for  Donnacona.  Car- 
tier  now  put  the  chieftain  forward  to  tell  his  people  that  he  was 
content,  and  would  return  in  a  year.  Meanwhile  the  French- 
men tossed  into  the  hovering  canoes  some  hatchets  in  return  for 
beaver  and  wampum.  The  savages  were  satisfied  enough  with 
the  exchange  to  forget  their  grievance,  and  Cartier  tried  to  get 
away  while  they  continued  in  so  happy  a  mind.  The  wind, 
however,  did  not  serve  him,  and  he  was  obliged  to  linger  till 
the  20th.  When  once  started,  he  found  no  obstacle  till  he 
reached  the  gulf.  Here  he  buffeted  awhile  with  adverse  gales, 
and  finally  found  a  haven  at  the  little  island  of  St.  Pierre.  At 
the  anchorage  he  found  many  ships  from  France  and  Britain, 
as  he  says,  and  may  have  learned  more  than  he  knew  before  of 
the  southerly  outlet  of  the  gulf,  for  he  shortly  after 
passed  to  sea  by  rounding  Cape  Race.  Eai-ly  in  July 
he  was  once  more  gliding  with  the  flood  into  the  basin  of  St. 
Malo. 

Cartier  was  at  once  ordered  by  the  king  to  make  a  written 
Tiie  nre/  accouut  of  the  voyage,  and  it  has  come  down  to  us, 
jiecit.  j^jjj  jg  usually  cited,  as  the  Bref  Rtcit.     It  has  been 

surmised,  as  four  years  elapsed  before  a  new  expedition  was 
sent  out,  that  the  report  which  Cartier  now  made  was  not,  on 
the  whole,  encouraging.     He  had  not,  indeed,  discovered  any 


July. 


El 


ROBERVAL. 


37 


mines,  as  had  been  hoped ;  but  a  copper  knife  which  he  had 
obtained  from  an  Indian  might  indicate  that  his  futile  quest 
was  rather  unfortunate  than  decisive.  This  implement  was  said 
to  come  from  the  Saguenay  region.  And  where  was  saRuenay 
tliis  region  ?  Dr.  Shea  thinks  it  evident  that  it  did  '"8'°"- 
not  mean  the  banks  of  the  Saguenay  River,  but  a  country  be- 
yond, to  which  that  river  opened  the  way.  The  Saguenay  had 
not  yet  been  explored,  and  there  was  a  chance  of  mines  being 
found  in  that  direction.  There  might  indeed  be  revelations 
in  reserve  along  those  valleys  up  which  Cartier  had  looked  so 
longingly  from  Mont  Royale.  Then  the  natives  had  also  spoken 
to  liim  of  an  inhabited  country  to  the  south,  where  the  climate 
was  milder.  This  was,  perhaps,  a  monition  of  the  Lake  Cham- 
plain  country,  which  led  him  to  imagine  that  a  water  passage 
was  yet  to  be  discovered,  running  south,  which  might  lead  to 
Florida,  —  a  region,  it  must  be  remembered,  broader  than  the 
present  designation  covers,  and  meaning  all  that  the  Spaniards 
clauned  in  what  is  now  the  southern  and  even  the  middle 
United  States. 

As  we  read  the  Bref  liecit^  we  feel  that  Cartier  at  least  was 
rather  cheerful  over  future  prospects  ;  but  the  person  necessary 
to  be  impressed  with  hope  was  Francis  I.  This  monarch  was 
embarrassed  in  making  i,ny  prompt  decision  by  the  wars  in 
wliich  he  was  involved,  rie  had  listened,  however,  to  Cartier, 
liad  read  his  written  account,  had  talked  with  Donnacona  and 
the  other  kidnapped  savages,  and  grew  to  be  confident  in  the 
chances  of  better  success. 

To  emphasize  his  claim  to  the  country  in  a  way  to  impress 
his  rival  potentates,  Francis  now  determined  to  create  a  vice- 
royalty  in  the  new  country,  and  selected  for  his  representative 
a  Picard  seigneur,  Jean  Franc^ois  de  la  Roque,  better  Robervai, 
known  as  Robervai,  from  his  estates.     He  was  a  gen-  ^'<='''°y- 
tleman  of  some  consideration  in  his  province,  —  a  sort  of  petty 
king,  if  we  may  believe  what  Charlevoix  gives  as  the  sportive 
designation  of  him,  often  on  the  royal  lips.     It  was  at  his  commis- 
Fontainebleau,  January  15, 1540,  that  the  king  signed  *'°"'  *'^*'- 
the  commission,  giving  his  subject  and  friend    full  vicegeral 
powers,  while  he  placed  at  the  same  time  at  his  lieu- 

,  ,  February, 

tenant's  disposal,  the  sum  of  45,000  livres.     On  Feb- 
ruary 0,  Robervai  took  the  oath  before  Cardinal  de  Tonrnon, 


:"  ^  '  !  1 


i  I 


!( 


W 


88 


CAUTIEll,  ItOn/mVAL,   AM)   ALLEFONSCE. 


I 


and  on  the  next  tlay  he  was  eonimsuuled  to  follow  the  luckless 
habit  of  searching  the  jails  for  reoruits.  There  is  no  certainty 
that  through  all  these  jireliniinaries  the  king  had  determined  to 
have  Cartier  as  the  active  spirit  of  the  exi)edition,  and  it  may 
rather  have  been  an  after-thought,  when  he  found  the  Picardy 
gentleman  not  pushing  the  enteri)rise  to  suit  his  royal  wishes. 
October,  "^*  ^^  events,  on  October  17,  Henry  the  Dauphin 
ti^r^iaptiriu-  '^'S  '^^  ^^^'^  paper  making  Cartier  captain-general  and 
general.  ^y^lot  of  the  fleet.  It  was  now  sure  that  some  spirit 
would  be  given  to  the  undertaking. 

The  outfit  of  the  fleet  was  '.nore  imposing  than  anything 
France  had  before  arranged,  and  accordingly  it  excdted  the  sus- 
picion of  Spain.  While  the  rivals  of  the  Spanish  monarch 
were  merely  hovering  about  the  coasts  of  Newfoundland,  Spain 
was  not  prepared  to  say  that  her  rights  inider  the  bull  of  de- 
marcation had  been  infringed,  for  it  had  long  been  allowed  that 
the  northern  regions  which  the  Cortereals  had  visited,  as  well 
as  the  eastern  limits  of  Brazil,  were  exterior  to  the  Spanish  ap- 
portionment. But  here  was  something  that  looked  like  a  rival 
claim  west  of  Pope  Alexander's  line  of  partition.  How  far 
the  public  or  the  emissai'ies  of  Spain  had  learned  of  what  Car- 
tier  had  accomplished  on  his  second  voyage  does  not  appear,  — 
certain  it  is  that  some  years  were  to  pass  before  any  publication 
was  made  concerning  the  voyage,  for  the  Bfcf  liecit  was  still 
in  manuscript.  Further,  if  a  type  of  all  the  maps  issued  before 
1541  has  come  down  to  us,  it  is  equally  certain  that  there  had 
been  no  cartographical  recognition  of  it  up  to  this  time.  The 
general  impression  was  that  the  Baccalaos  —  as  Newfoundland 
and  the  neighboring  lands  were  usually  called  —  was  a  sterile 
region,  out  of  which  little  could  come  in  compensation  for  any 
considerable  outlay.  So  the  Spanish  ambassador  in  Paris  re- 
ported to  his  master  that  it  was  best  to  let  the  French  king 
spend  his  money.  The  Spaniards  seem  at  any  rate  to  have 
exaggerated  the  preparations  which  Roberval  was  making,  for 
t'  ey  imagined  that  thirteen  ships  were  fitting  for  the  voyage, 
while  in  fact  Cartier  had  been  instructed  to  prepare  five  only, 
and  among  them  we  find  the  familiar  "  Grande  Hermiue  "  and 
the  "  Emerillon." 

It  was  the   king's  wish  that   the   fleet   shoidd    bo 
at  sea  by  April  15,  1541 ;  but  when  the  time  canu' 


April,  1541. 


>'Ak.\ 


,1  WAITING  llOBEIi VA L. 


;i9 


Kohci'val  was  far  from  ready.     It  was  therefore  deeided  that  a 
]):irt  of  the  expedition  shoidd  ^o  ahead,  and  on  May  23,  Cur- 
tlei-  lioisted  sail  on  three  ships.    JIo  soon  ran  into  foul 
weather,   during    whieh   his   vessels   were   separated. 
Thi'V  all  later  rendezvoused  at  Carpunt  on  the  Newfoundland 
coast.       Here  they  waited   six  weeks  for   Hoberval,    and  had 
ahundant  leisure  to  repair  damages.     But  the  viceroy  came  not. 
A\'eary  of  the  delay,  Cartier  again  put  to  sea,  and 
entering  the  Gulf  of  St.  Lawrence,  pushed  across  it  i">^i.   At' 

1  ■•  Ti  »  i->f»i  1         Stadacoiin. 

and  up  the  great  river.     It  was  August  Z6  when  he 
reached  his  old  camp  at  Stadaeona. 

The  expectant  natives  at  once  asked  for  Donnacona  and  his 
fellows,  only  to  be  told  that  the  chieftain  had  died  a  Chris- 
tian, and  that  the  others  had  married  and  were  now  great  lords. 
Tliero  is  evidence  that  three  at  least  of  these  Indians  had  been 
baptized  at  St.  Malo  in  1538,  and  that  all,  excepting  one  girl, 
had  died.  The  bold  deceit  ap])eased  the  native  anxiety,  and 
Agona,  who  had  in  the  interval  worn  Donnaeona's  wreath, 
felt  cpiite  content  with  a  new  lease  of  power.  In  fact,  he  was 
somewhat  effusive  in  his  joy,  and  did  his  best  to  nuike  Cartier 
share  in  his  festive  delight. 

For  some  reason  Cartier  felt  it  best  to  leave  his  old  harbor 
of  Sainte  Croix  and  to  proceed  four  leagues  higher  up  the  St. 
Lawrence  to  a  position  near  the  modern  Cap  Rouge.   „ 

Septeuibpr* 

Here  he  began  a  fort  whieh  he  called  Charlesbourg.   i'*' 
Ile  was  still  without  tidings  of  the  viceroy,  and  on   imurKat 
September  2  he  dispatched  two  of  his  ships  to  carry 
word  to  France  of  what  he  had  done  and  of  Roberval's  non- 
a])pearance.      One  of  these  messenger  ships  was  commanded 
by  his  brother-in-law,  Jalobert,  the  other  by  his  nephew,  Noel. 

After  these  had  started  honi  ward,  Cartier  left  Beau])re  in 
charge  at  Charlesbourg,  and  proceeded  up  the  river.  He  had 
a  conference  with  a  petty  chieftain  at  Ilochelay,  a 
sj)ot  ai)parently  near  the  Iv'  ulieu  Rapids.  He  be- 
stowed upon  this  savage  n  red  cloak  with  bright  trimmings. 
Passing  on  through  the  rapids  to  Ilochelaga,  he  learned  that  its 
chieftain  was  plotting  mischief,  and  had  gone  to  Stadaeona  as 
if  to  further  some  evil  design.  So  without  tarrying  long,  Cai*- 
tier  returned  to  Charlesbourg  and  made  preparations  for  the  win- 
tor.     Perhaps  the  situation  of  his  new  fort  was  not  favorable  for 


■n 


!N     1 

I     !  i; 


;  ^1 


!  ■;. 


liiiiii 


Robcrval. 


40  CMiriER,  nOHEllVAL,   AND  ALLEFOSSCK. 

intercourse  witli  the  natives,  or  the  savapjes  may  liave  kept  pur- 
wiiiter,  posely  aloof ;  at  all  events,  he  saw  little  of  them  ilur- 
1541-42.  j„g  ^|„,  winter.  His  men  had  found  some  su])poso(l 
diamonds  and  flakes  of  what  ho  thon<::ht  p^old,  —  evidently  de- 
ceived by  a  mock  metal  as  the  pioneers  of  Virginia  later  were, 
—  and  with  such  promises  of  wealth  he  was  ready  in  the  spriiif^ 
to  abandon  the  fort  and  sail  for  France.  Wh  jther  he  eneonn- 
tered  Koberval  on  the  way  is  a  question  whiuh  we  may  pres- 
ently consider,  as  we  follow  the  fortunes  of  the  viceroy. 

We  left  this  royal  representative  preparing  to  follow  Cartier 
with  the  rest  of  the  fleet.  It  is  to  be  acknowledcrod 
at  the  outset  that  the  itineraries  of  Koberval  and  Car- 
tier  during  the  progress  of  this  divided  expedition  are  difficult 
to  reconcile  one  with  another.  Some  writers  have  contended 
that  the  viceroy  made  but  a  single  voyage  to  the  gulf,  and  then 
failed  to  go  up  the  river  to  join  Cartier,  but  wintered  some- 
where on  the  gulf  shores.  Others  contend  that  he  made  a  brief 
preliminary  voyage  and  then  returned  to  France,  only  to  start 
the  next  spring  on  his  chief  explorations.  The  truth  can  hardly 
be  determined  beyond  dispute ;  nor  can  it  be  satisfactorily 
established  whether  the  viceroy  and  his  master  pilot  met  at 
all  in  American  waters,  so  as  to  be  for  any  pe\  iod  together  in 
these  wild  regions.  We  have  distinct  statements  that  Koberval 
sailed  from  ITonfleur,  August  22,  1541,  and  again  from  La 
Kochelle,  April  IG,  1542.  AVhether  this  was  one  embarkation 
with  a  confusion  of  dates,  as  has  been  often  believed,  or  two 
distinct  ones,  is  a  subject  of  controversy.  If  the  voyage  of 
1541  was  a  preliminary  one,  Koberval  could  hardly  have  gone 
beyond  the  gulf  so  as  to  add  anything  to  geographical  know- 
ledge.    He  would  have  returned  to  France  by  the  year's  end. 

Meanwhile  Jalobert  and  Noel,  as  already  stated,  had  been 
sent  home  by  Cartier  with  dispatches  to  the  king,  and  their 
dispatches  may  have  given  new  encouragement,  so  that  Kober- 
val was  —  on  the  supposition  of  two  voyages  —  again  at  sea  on 
April  IG,  1542.  Thi^-  time  it  seems  certain  —  •vhether  it  be 
the  true  date  of  a  sinok;  vovage,  or  the  date  of  a  sec- 

At  New-  .      J^    ' 

fomidiaud,     ond  ouc  —  that  Koberval  dei)arte(l  from  La  Kochelle. 
After  a  stormy  passage  he  anchored  at  St.  John,  New- 
foundland, June  8,  1542.      Jean  Allefonsce,  whose  story  ami 


ALLEFONSCE. 


41 


chiirts  help  us  to  rehearse  their  experiences,  was  in  one  of  his 
ships. 

We  have  seen  that  Cartier,  in  the  spring  of  tliis  year,  had 
abandoned  his  post  at  Cap  Rouge  and  eonie  down  the  river, 
it  lias  been  usually  said  that  in  one  of  the  harbors  near  the 
gulf  he  encountered  Uoberval  and  his  fleet.  We  may  allow  it 
to  be  true,  and  that  the  meeting  was  not  altogether  a  grateful 
one  to  Cartier,  who  conld  have  had  little  disposition  to  return 
iij)  the  river  for  a  repetition  of  the  winter's  miseries.  If  Cartier 
exhibited  his  supposable  gold  and  diamonds,  Uoberval  may  have 
been  more  eager  to  make  trial  of  new  chances  in  the  same  field. 
We  only  know  —  as  the  story  goes  —  that  after  an  interview  of 
the  two,  one  night  Cartier  hoisted  anchor,  and  when  the  dawn 
broke,  Uoberval  found  himself  left  to  his  own  resources  and 
Cartier  out  of  sight  on  his  way  to  France.  Such  is  Hakluyt's 
narrative  of  their  meeting  and  parting,  and  his  name  carries  a 
measure  of  assurance  to  make  it  true.  It  has  been  intimated 
that  a  part  of  Cartier's  discontent  was  with  the  necessity  of 
leading  a  colony  which  offered  no  better  material  than  the 
scouring  of  the  jails. 

IMention  has  been  made  of  Allefonsce  as  in  Roberval's  train. 
This  seaman  was  at  this  time  a  man  well  on  in  years, 
—  ill  fact  not  much  short  of  sixty,  —  and  of  so  great 
experience  in  navigation  that  his  name  is  a  prominent  one  in 
the  maritime  annals  of  the  Norman  seaports.  Despite  some 
rival  claims  as  to  his  nativity,  the  French  can  best  boast  of  his 
fame,  for  he  was  most  likely  born  at  Saintonge,  which  is  a  vil- 
lage near  that  Cognac  which  gives  its  name  to  French  brandy. 
Cham})lain,  who  lived  with  a  generation  that  had  not  forgotten 
the  associates  of  Allefonsce,  called  him  the  hardiest  mariner  of 
his  time. 

Koberval  apparently  took  Allefonsce  to  serve  him  as  ]ulot 
after  he  had  sent  Cartier  ahead ;  and  it  was  by  Roberval's 
oiders,  after  reaching  Xewfonndland,  that  Allefonsce  went  north 
along  the  Labrador  coast  to  find,  if  possible,  a  passage  to 
the  west.  The  ice  proved  so  dense  that  he  gave  up  the  search. 
How  thoroughly  he  then,  or  at  any  later  day,  sailed  about 
tlie  St.  Lawrence  gulf  is  not  clear.  The  little  sketch-maps 
which   he  made,  and  which  are  preserved  in    his  manuscript 


\) 


1 


il 


42 


CMlTlEi:,   liOIiEnVAL,   AND  A/JJJFOXSCK 


ii 


('(isfnf>t/riij>/ii(;  now  in  tlio  grout  I'liris  library,  nvo\u  to  indicate 
personal  acMniaintani'c  with  its  wat(>rH,  even  so  far  inland  as 
tlu!  mouth  of  tho  Sajj;uenay.  IIo  seems  to  have  end)raeed  the 
belief  that  these  rej^ions  were  near,  or  ])ossihly  identical  with, 
C  athay,  and  he  represents  the  Saguenay  as  broadening  in  its 
upper  parts  into  tho  Sea  of  Cathay.  If  these  maps  of  Alle- 
fonsce  are  tho  result  of  his  own  observation  in  part  at  least, 

'smiosniNmu 


^s/>/- 


Gl'LF  OF  ST.  LAWRENCE. 

[T«o  Sketches  l)y  AUefonsce.] 

they  may  bo  looked  upon  as  the  earliest  we  have  of  any  portion 
of  the  St.  Lawrence  valley  made  by  an  actual  explorer. 

Roberval  himself  ascended  the  St.  Lawrence  and  reached  the 
CnpRouce,  neighborhood  of  Cap  Rouge  by  the  middle  of  July, 
July,  iML>.  1542^  and  began  defenses  where  Cartier  in  the  pre- 
vious year  had  established  his  foi't.  The  communal  building  — 
tenement,  castle,  or  whatever  it  was — makes  a  good  show  in 
the  description,  with  its  halls,  chambers,  storehouses,  kitchens, 
and  cellar.  The  whole  group  of  structures  constituted  a  little 
intrenched   camp,   where  the  company  was  huddled   together.  " 


noiiKltVAL  AT  FRASCE-nol. 


43 


N'otliinfj  Itut  the  outer  daiij^cr  coulil  have  ln'ought  such  incon- 
oriious  eloiiients  into  Hiilticction  or  iiiudo  lift;  ciKluriihlc.  Tho 
(|ii('sti(Hi  of  Hnstonaiu!('  sood  harassed  thom.  The  Xnvf^a  houso- 
lioKl  was  roiij^h  and  prodigal.  Tho  stores  were  not  of  the  best, 
and  there  was  small  chanee  of  increasinj;^  theni  from  tho  neij;h- 
boring  tribes,  even  if  they  could  bo  counted  on  as  friends.  It 
became  thert'foie,  be- 
fore long,  necessary  to 
(leal  out  allotted  ra- 
tions, and  it  was  done 
rigorously.  In  this  way 
famine,  which  at  one 
time  was  alarmingly 
near,  was  kept  at  a  dis- 
tance. Disease,  how- 
ever, could  not  1)0 
barred  out,  and  scurvy 
began  to  make  sad  in- 
roads u})on  a  company 
weakened  by  many 
trials,  and  not  in  the  /?a//^£^U 
past  bred  to  whole- 
some ways. 

As  exigencies  came, 
Koberval  showed  him- 
self quite  equal  to  his 
duty.  lie  used  the  gib- 
l»et  and  lash  effectively 
to  i)rescrve  peace  and 
insure  safety  to  the 
conmiunity  at  Fran- 
f'ois-Roi,   as   the    post 

was  now  called,  transformed  to  Francc-Roi  by  Alle- 
fonsce,  and  France-Prime  by  ITakluyt. 

Fortunately  Tvoberval,  as  Cartiev  had  before  him,  escai)ed 
hostile  attacks  from  the  savages,  and  it  does  not  aj)pear  that  the 
French  were  even  threatened  during  that  perilous  winter.  With 
the  coming  of  spring,  a  better  feeling  pervaded  the  com]iany, 
and  Koberval  had  the  courage  to  think  of  something  beside 
disciplining  his  followers.     lie  determined  to  discover,  if  possi- 


THE  ST.  LAWRENCE  AND  THE  SAC.VENAV. 
[A  Sketch  by  Allefonsce.] 


Frniii;oi»-Koi. 


1 

r 

fP 

P 

■u 


I 


I   •: 


!  i 


t 


k-V 


1 


riJ! 


liiiii- 


I.  F« 


i!l 


']*'' 


1 1 

Wit!' 


i 


1   I 
111 

ii      J? 


I  t 


;  f  I  H 
1: 


I      m  I 


44 


CAIITIER,  liOBEliVAL,   AND  ALLEFONSCE. 


ble,  what  all  the  stories  of  various  mines  in  the  country  were 
based  upon,  lioberval  would  have  given  much  to  know  what 
the  assayers  had  made  of  the  sparkling  fragments  whicli  Car- 
tier  had  carried  to  France.  Possibly  in  their  treacherous  in- 
terview, which  in  llakluyt's  narrative  is  made  to  })recede  Car- 
tier's  stealthy  escape,  that  pilot  may  have  laid  before  his  chief 
the  identical  map  which  a  descendant  of  Cartier  possessed 
nearly  fifty  years  later.  Jioberval  would  then  have  descried 
upon  it  the  legend:  "The  Saguenay  country  is  a  rich  land, 
abounding  in  precious  stones." 

Koberval  now  determined  to  i)ush  an  expedition  farther  into 
the  interior.     Accordingly  on  June  5,  1543,  —  Hak- 

Roberval  ox-  .  i        •   i  ji       mi  p 

i.i^oies,  June,  luyt  givcs  US  thc  tlatc,  —  lic  stuvtcd  With  a  notilla  or 
eight  boats  and  seventy  men.  AVe  are  told  that  he 
left  thirty  men  to  guard  the  fort,  and  this  total  of  a  hundred 
would  indicate  that  the  winter  and  its  diseases  liad  claimed 
many  victims.  He  ex])ectedto  return  to  France-Roi  by  July  1. 
Whither  he  went  it  is  difficult  to  say.  Some  interpret  the 
scant  account  in  Ilakluyt  as  signifying  an  ascent  of  the  St. 
Lawrence.  Others  make  him  plunge  through  the  deep  shad- 
ows of  the  Saguenay.  It  has  been  even  stated  that  he  estab- 
lished a  fort  on  the  river  Mistassini,  and  that  its  remains  were 
still  traceable :  but  the  most  trustworthy  explorers  have  never 
found  them  (^Biill.  Amcr.  Geofj.  Soc,  September,  1891). 

At  all  events,  he  found  the  task  of  exploration,  in  whatever 
direction  it  lay,  greater  than  he  anticii)atetl,  and  he  sent  back 
word  to  lioycze,  who  had  been  left  in  connnand  at  the  fort,  not 
to  expect  his  return  till  July  20,  after  which,  if  nothing  more 
was  heard  of  him,  Koycze  was  at  liberty  to  sail  for  France. 

The  failure  of  Ilakluyt  to  continue  the  story  leaves  us  with- 
out a  guide  to  the  subsequent  fortunes  of  a  colony  which,  as 
the  Abbe  Ferland  contends,  could  hardly  have  left  worthy 
descendants,  if  it  had  established  a  foothold  for  its  jail-birds. 
The  reader  needs  to  be  api)rised  that  in  what  we  hav(»  gone 
over,  the  i)resent  recital  is  more  or  less  forced.  Tlie  dates  of 
the  several  accounts  are  confusing,  i  lakluyt  is  more  than  usu- 
ally uncertain,  and  Allefonsce  is  sparing  of  dates.  Late  writ- 
(M's,  whether  near  or  remote  from  the  time  of  Cartier,  have  not 
done  much  to  render  clearer  the  dependence  of  events. 

In  what  is  to  follow,  the  most  certain  element  of  dates  comes 


C  ARTIE  It   AT  ST.   MALO. 


45 


from  the  somewhat  surprising  fondness  anil  opportunities  which 
C'avtier,  after  his  return  to  St.  Malo,  had  for  standing  spon- 
sor at  baptisms,  and  giving  evidence   in  court.     Longrais  has 


i 


■i 


CART  IKK. 

iTho  iisiml  r.)rtrait,  but  of  .loubtfiil  aiitlu'uti.ity,  following  tlu"  Kngniving  in  Suite's  CuiKulieii''- 

delved  assiduously  in  the  hidden  sources  of  this  kind  of  evi- 
dence, and  there  seems  to  have  been  no  church  or  other  records 
in  St.  ^Slido  to  which  his  scrutiny  has  not  been  applied. 

In  this  way  it  is  nuide  to  appear  that  Cartier  arrived  at  St. 


1;^ 


i  i. 


il 


■li 


I! 

iii 


!        \     ■ 


ii 


.     K   .   t  ■ 
'    ^       1 


'       I 


),:i 


I 


i 


46 


C ARTIER,  ROBERVAL,  AND  ALLEFONSCE. 


Malo   before  October   21,  1542.     In   the   following  spring  — 
say  in  April  oi  May,  1543  —  his  name  is  absent  from 

Cartier  in        ,         ,  -^       ,  ,      , 

St.  Malo,       local   records,   and   does   not   reappear   till   autumn. 

Lescarbot  says  that  Cartier  made  a  fourth  voyage  to 
Canada  to  rescue  Roberval,  and  there  was  a  sufficient  interval 

between  the  spring  of  1543  and  October  or  November 
fourth  voy-    of  the  samc  year  for  him  to  have  done  so.    Lescarbot's 

unsupported  statement  and  this  opportune  interval  are 
all  we  have  upon  which  to  rest  any  such  final  voyage  of  Car- 
tier.  Concerning  his  remaining  years  at  home  we  have  a  few 
tangible  facts. 

It  was  probably  in  the  interval  between  his  second  and  third 
voyage,  and  perhaps  about  the  time  he  was  summoned  in  order 
to  impart  a  little  force  to  the  dilatory  performance  of  Roberval, 


CARTIKR'S   MANOR. 

[From  Suite's  CuiKulieiis-Fnnirdi.s,  vol.  ii.] 

that  the  king  bestowed  upon  Cartier  a  manor,  situated  on  the 
coast  a  few  miles  out  of  St.  Malo,  which  has  given  rise,  in  some 
writers,  to  the  belief  that  this  lordship  of  Limoilon  had  made 
him  a  noble.  If  such  an  honor  could  be  indubitably  estab- 
lished, it  might  be  cited  as  another  proof  of  the  way  in  which 
Cartier  basked  in  the  royal  favor.  It  was  from  tliis  abode,  or 
from  his  town  liouse  in  St.  Malo,  that  he  occasionally  issued  in 
Ills  retirement  to  attend  upon  legal  transactions,  as  the  records 
show.     The  most  important  of  these  citations  for  our  purpose 


DEATH   OF  C ARTIER. 


47 


is  when  he  is  summoned  with  Roberval  (April  3,  1544)  be- 
fore the  king,  to  settle  the  accounts  of  their  joint  expe- 

/»  1       n  1  •     1  April  uj  lu44. 

(lition.     The  referees  gave  an  award  of  nearly  eighty- 
four  livrcs  to  Cartier,  which  he  never  received,  and  which  his 
heirs  at  a  later  day  contended  for.     With  this  item  these  two 
men  pass  out  of  sight  in  the  story  of  Canadian  exploration. 

We  know  little  of  the  life  of  Cartier  subsequently,  till  he 
died  at  his  seashore  estate  on  September  1,  1557, 
probably  of  an  epidemic  then  prevailing.  Roberval's  septeniber ' 
end  is  more  uncertain.  Perhaps  he  died  later  at  sea, 
iieihaps  he  was  assassinated  in  Paris,  —  we  have  both  stories 
(>  iven  to  us,  —  but  at  all  events  he  was  still  living  in  the  year  of 
Cavtier's  death,  and  thenceforth  he  eludes  us. 


'% 


5  !»'> , 


rh 


\n 


I;. 


I; 


0^ 

•f 


'.'- ' 


Pi 


tf 


I'' 


■'I 
,*  I- 


[I 


i- 


I  i 


»ii!|: 


}\ 


.!■!: 


CHAPTER  III. 


THE   RKSl'LTS   OF   CAUTIPiR  S    EXPLORATIONS. 


lo4L'-l()();i. 


'1:     i 


i.iS 


■'fl 

I  ! 


TriE  results  of  Ciiitier's  explorations  came  slowly  to  the 
knowledge  of  contemporary  cartographers.  In  the  year  of 
Cartier's  return  from  his  second  voyage  (153G),  Alonso  de 
Chaves,  the  official  cosmographer  of  Spain,  made  a  plot  of  the 
North  American  coast,  using,  it  seems  probable,  maps  of  ex- 
l^lorations  of  which  we  have  no  other  trace,  and  which  gave  it 
some  trends  of  the  coast  differing  from  the  well-known  Ivibero 
map  of  a  few  years  before.  Although  the  Spaniartls  were  keej)- 
ing  close  watch  on  the  northern  explorations  of  their  rivals,  it 
is  apparent  that  Chaves  had  not  heard  of  Cartier's  movements, 
and  this  means,  most  likely,  that  the  hydrographers  in  the  ser- 
vice of  Spain  were  equally  ignorant  of  what  France 
thf  I'iuiron     had  bccu  doin<i',  and  that  nothing  from  Cartier's  re- 

Geueral.  .  . 

ports  had  been  embodied  in  the  Padron  -  General, 
ordered  in  152G,  with  the  intention  of  portraying  year  by  year 
the  latest  results  of  discovery.  P)y  this  time  Eibero,  who  had 
begun  such  a  map,  had  died,  and  Chaves  had  been  ])la('ed  in 
chai'ge  of  it.  This  map  of  Chaves  is  not  ])reserved  ;  but  there 
is  a  map  by  (iutierrez  (1550),  known  to  us,  which  is  held  to 
be  based  on  Chaves.  This  Gutierrez  maj)  gives  no  trace  of  the 
French  voyages :  nor  does  Oviedo,  the  Spanish  historian,  who 
wrote  the  next  year  (1537)  with  Chaves's  ma])  before  him, 
give  us  any  ground  for  discrediting  the  map  of  Gutierrez  as 
indicating  the  features  of  that  by  Chaves.  The  next  year 
(1538"),  the  rising  young  Plemish  map-maker,  (ierard  ]\[erca- 
tor,  made  his  earliest  map,  which  shows  that  no  tidings  of  the 
Cartier  voyages  had  yet  reached  the  Low  Countries.  He  did 
not  even  recognize  the  great  Square  Gulf,  which  had  a])peai-ed 
in  the  Ptolemy  of    1511,   as  premonitory  of  the  gulf   wliicli 


MAPS   OF   THE  SIXTEENTH  CENTURY. 


49 


Cai'tier  had  circumnavigated,  though  three  years  later  Merca- 
tor  ati'ords  a  faiut  suspicion  of  it  in  his  gores  of  1541. 


MKRCATOR,  ]r,3S. 
[Nortlierii  Hemispliere.] 


AVo  do  not  find  any  better  information  in  the  best  of  the 
contemporary  cosmosjrapliers.     Sebastian  Ariinstor  in 


Maps,  aix- 


(ii'vmany  (ir)40)  widened  a  little  the  ]>assap,e  which  tepnti'icen 
severed  Xewfoundlanil  from  the  main,  and  so  did  the    "'^^" 


I' 


\J 


I 

W 


iV\ 


M-^^. 


;  t  -t    Mi! 


■|, 


'  ^Vrl#?,:f 


50 


CARTOGRAPHICAL   RESULTS,   m^-160?. 


is; 


Italian  Vopellio ;  but  Ulpius,  making  the  globe  at  Rome,  in 
1542,  which  is  now  owned  by  the  New  York  Historical  Society, 
seems  not  to  have  been  even  thus  imperfectly  informed.  The 
French  globe-maker,  who  not  far  from  the  same  time  made  the 
sjihere  preserved  at  Nancy,  knew  only  enough  to  make  a  group 
of  islands  west  of  the  Newfoundland  banks. 

We  turn  to  something  more  intimately  connected  with  Car- 
tier's  own  work.  It  might  go  without  saying  that  Cartier  would 
l)lot  his  own  tracks ;  but  we  have  no  written  evidence  that  he 
did,  otlier  than  a  letter  of  his  grand-nephew  fifty  years  later, 
who  says  that  he  himself  had  inherited   oue  such  map.     We 


us 


IllA^^iia. 


CABO  AR£WAS 


The  /Jeu)  ForLde  Londe.  aaKo-t  men.  ooeth.  a-  fLich-lTxcr 


ROTZ,  1512. 
[East  Coaat.] 

must  look  to  three  or  four  maps,  made  within  five  years  of 
Cartier's  last  voyage,  and  which  have  come  down  to  us,  to  find 
how  the  lost  charts  of  Cartier  affected  cartographical  know- 
ledge in  certain  circles  in  France,  and  placed  the  geography  of 
the  St.  Lawrence  on  a  basis  which  was  not  improved  for  sixty 
years. 

Those  who  have  compared  the  early  maps  find  the  oldest 
ciu'tograpiiioal  record  which  we  have  of  Cartier's  first  voyage 
(1584)  in  a  document  by  .lean  R  dated  eight  years 
later,  and  preserved  in  the  Briti'  ivluseum.  Har- 
risse  thinks  that  back  of  this  Rotz  niaj)  the'     i.  another,  known' 


ilotz,  154'.'. 


si 


JEAN  ROTZ. 


W 


as  the  Harleyan  mappemonde,  which  is  deposited  in  the  same 
collection  ;  and  it  is  possible  that  a  map  of  Jean  de  Clanioigan, 
known  to  have  comprehended  details  of  the  earlier  Cartier  voy- 
ii"es,  which  has  disappeared  from  the  collection  at  Fontaine- 
bluau,  may  also  have  been  useful  to  liotz,  who  is  held  to  be 
a  Frenchman,  which  may  also  account  for  his  acquaintance 
with  Malouin  sources.  Hamy,  in  a  recent  paper  (^Bulletin 
de  Georjvaiihic  hlstorlcpic,  etc.,  1889),  makes  him  identical 
with  Jean  Koze  of  Dieppe.  This  Bake  of  Idmgraphj,  as  Kotz 
calls  it,  contains  two  maps  which  interest  us.  One  shows  the 
Gulf  of  St.   Lawrence  and  the  opening  into  the  river,  which 

Vie.  ^ajtci  of  / 


\i^-^^\ 


'—iT, 


-a 


cae 


•TAS, 


^erfTLu-cL-L 


^ 


b 


O 


ROTZ,  ir42. 
[Western  Hemisphere.] 

indicates  an  acquaintance  with  the  extent  of  Cartier's  first  ex- 
plorations (1534),  and  may  well  have  been  made  some  years 
before  the  date  of  the  manuscript  which  contains  it.  If  its 
outline  is  interpreted  correctly,  in  making  Anticosti  a  penin- 
sula connecting  with  the  southern  shore  of  the  St.  Lawrence 
River,  it  is  a  further  proof  that  a  foggy  distance  prevented 
Cartier  from  suspecting  that  he  was  crossing  the  main  chan- 
nel of  the  St.  Lawrence,  when  he  sailed  from  Gaspd  to  the 
Anticosti  shores.  The  other  map  may  be  nearer  the  date  of 
the  manuscript,  for  it  carries  the  river  much  farther  from  the 
gulf,  and  indicates  a  knowledge  of  Cartier's  second  voyage. 
So  skillful  a  cosmographer  as  Santa  Cruz  —  whose  map  is  pre- 


1^ 


'  1 


!  ll 


■^  .  : 


>\ 


52 


CARTOGRAPHICAL   RESULTS,   .t542-160J. 


ii 


i!  '.V' 


Cabot  map, 


served  in  Stockholm,  as  Dahlgren  has  lately  informed  us  —  was 
certainly  at  this  period  (1542)  utterly  ignorant  of  the  then 
recent  explorations  up  the  St.  Lawrence. 

Two  years  later  (1544),  there  was  the  first  sign  in  an  en- 
graved map  of  Cartier's  success,  —  the  now  famous 
Cabot  mappemonde,  —  and  this  was  a  year  before  any 
narrative  of  his  second  voyage  was  printed.  As  but  a  single 
copy  is  known  of  both  map  and  narrative,  it  is  pr  «sib!e  that 
the  publications  were  not  welcome  to  the  government,  and  the 
editions  of  the  two  were  suppressed  as  far  as  could  be.  The 
solitary  map  was  found  in  Germany,  and  is  now  in  the  great 
library  at  Paris.  The  sole  copy  of  the  Bref  Hecit,  published 
at  Paris  in  1545,  is  in  the  British  Museum,  among  the  books 
which  Thomas  Grenville  collected. 

To  test  this  published  narrative,  scholars  have  had  recourse 
to  three  manuscripts,  preserved  in  the  Paris  Library,  varying 
somewhat,  and  giving  evidence  that,  before  the  text  was  printed, 
it  had  circulated  in  hand-written  copies,  all  made  apparently 
by  the  same  penman.  It  was  probably  from  the  printed  text 
that  both  Hakluyt  and  Ramusio  made  their  versions  to  be  pub- 
lished at  a  later  day. 

The  suppression,  if  there  was  such,  of  the  Cabot  map  is 
more  remarkable ;  for  this  Paris  copy  is  the  only  one  which  has 
come  down  to  us  out  of  several  editions  —  Ilarrisse  says  four 
—  in  which  it  appeared.  This  multiplicity  of  issue  is  inferred 
from  the  desci'iptions  of  copies  varying,  but  it  is  not  clear 
that  these  changes  indicate  anything  more  than  tentati\e 
conditions  of  the  plates.  That  the  map  embodies  some  con- 
ception of  the  Cartier  explorations  is  incontestable.  It  gives 
v.iguely  a  shape  to  the  gulf  conformable  to  Cartier's  track,  and 
makes  evident  the  course  of  the  great  tributary,  as  far  as  Car- 
tier  explored  it.  There  are  many  signs  in  this  part  of  the 
map,  however,  that  Cartier's  own  plot  could  not  have  been  used 
at  first  hand,  and  the  map  in  its  confused  nomenclature  and 
antiquated  geographical  notions  throughout  indicates  that  the 
draft  was  made  by  a  'prentice  hand.  The  profession  of  one  of 
its  legends  —  of  late  critically  set  forth  from  the  study  of  them 
by  Dr.  Deane  in  the  Proceed'u)gs  of  the  Ifassachusetts  Ilh- 
torical  Society  (February,  1891) — that  Sebastian  Cabot  was 
its  author  is  to  be  taken  with  some  modification  at  least.     The" 


tr 

— 

M 

J 

Sijl 


gives- 


THE  CABOT  MAPPEMONDE. 


53 


m  ' 


fi.  . 

111 


III 


ii  i  . 


il 


11 


m 


i\ 


! 


I        • 


64 


CARTOGRAPHICAL   RESULTS,  1543-160S. 


map  is  an  indication  that  the  results  of  Cartier's  voyages  had 
within  a  few  years  become  in  a  certain  sense  public  property. 
It  happens  that  most  of  what  we  know  respecting  the  genesis 
of  the  map  is  from  English  sources,  or  sources  which  point  t  > 
England ;  but  the  map,  it  seems  probable,  was  made  in  Flan- 
ders, and  not  in  France,  nor  in  Spain,  the  country  with  which 
Cabot's  official  standing  connected  him.  It  looks  very  mueli 
like  a  surreptitious  publication,  which,  to  avoid  the  scrutiny  of 
the  Spanish  Hydrographical  Office,  had  been  made  beyond 
their  reach,  while  an  anonymous  publication  of    it  protected 

Ca.7ia.dA , 

5^) 


DESCELIERS  OR  HENRI  H.  MAP,  IMC. 

Kit:  1.  Ochelapia.  2.  R.  du  Sag'nay.  3.  Assumption.  4.  R.  Cartier.  5.  Bell  IsIp. 
C.  Bacalliau.  7.  C.  <le  Raz.  8,  C.  aux  Bretons.  0.  Encorporada.  10.  Yedu  Breton.  It.  Ye 
de  Jhan  estienne.    1'/.  Sets  citades.    13.  C.  dea  isles.    14.  Arripel  de  estienne  Oomez. 

the  irresponsible  maker  or  makers  from  official  annoyance. 
This  may  account  for  its  rarity,  and  perhaps  for  the  incompleto- 
ness  of  its  information.  Harrisse,  however,  in  his  latest  publi- 
cation, The  Discovery  of  North  Amencu^  is  inclined  to  recog- 
nize Cabot's  direct  connection  with  the  map,  and  suggests 
that  Cabot  used  it  to  enforce  the  claim  of  England  to  the 
regions  which  the  French  were  now  ex])loring,  by  placing  tho 
landfall  of  1497  at  Cape  Breton.  In  doing  so  Cabot  negatived 
all  the  earlier  implied  and  positive  statements,  that  the  land- 
fall of  John  Cabot  had  been  ten  degrees  farther  north  on  the" 


VALLARD  AND  DESCELIERS. 


55 


Labrador  coast.  This  position  outside  the  water-shed  of  the  St. 
Lawrence  valley  was  of  course  less  favorable  to  an  English 
claim  than  one  commanding  the  entrance  of  the  valley. 

Better  information,  mixed  apparently  with  some  knowledge 
derived  from  the  Portuguese  voyages,  —  and  certainly  chroni- 
cling Portuguese  discoveries  in  other  parts  of  the  globe,  —  and 
so  presenting  some  but  not  great  differences,  appears  in  another 
map  of  about  the  same  date,  known  as  the  Nicolas  Vallard 
map.  When  Dr.  Kohl  brought  it  anew  to  the  attention  of 
ficholars,  it  was  in  the  collection  of  Sir  Thomas  Phillipps  in 
England ;  but  there  is  reason  to  suppose  that  not  far  from 
the  date  of  its  making,  it  had  been  owue  \  in   Diei)pe.     The 


L.,.,y>^  ^'o  do  dn^fij^     K 


-r 


<*-■'**»«.. 


^1 
i' 


NICOLAS  VALLAUD. 


maker  of  it  may  have  profited  directly  from  French  sources, 
particularly  in  the  embellishment  upon  it,  which  seems  to  rep- 
resent events  in  Roberval's  experiences. 

There  is,  likewise,  another  map  of  this  period  which  is  still 
more  intimately  connected  with  Cartier's  movements ;  „ 
indeed,  it  can  hardly  have  been  made  independently  of 
material  which  he  furiiished,  though  very  likely  for  neighbor- 
ing regions  it  was  based  on  Portuguese  sources.  This  is  the  one 
fashioned  by  the  order  of  the  king  for  the  Dauphin's  instruc- 
tion, just  before  the  latter  succeeded  his  father  as  Henry  II. 
A  few  years  ago  Mr.  Major,  of  the  British  Museum,  deciphered 
a  legend  upon  it,  which  showed  that  it  was  the  handiwork  of 
Pierre  Desceliers,  a  Dieppe  map-maker  then  working  at  Arques. 


..1 


'  1 


;    1 


60 


CA  li  TOUltA I'JIJCA  L   UESUL  TS,   ir.^J-lCO.i. 


AUofousce. 


This  fact,  as  well  aa  its  official  character,  brinj^s  it  close  to  the 
prime  sources  ;  and  the  map  may  even  identify  these  sources 
in  the  representations  of  Koberval  and  his  men,  as  they  arc 
grouped  on  the  banks  of  the  St.  Lawrence.  I  am  informed  by 
the  j)resent  owner,  the  Earl  of  Crawford  and  Halcarres,  that 
an  attempt  at  one  time  to  efface  the  legend  which  discloses  its 
authorship  has  obscured  but  has  not  destroyed  the  lettering. 
The  map  formerly  belonged  to  Jomard,  the  geographer. 

There  are  only  the  sketch  maps  of  Allefonsce  which  can  be 
traced  nearer  the  explorers  themselves  than  the  maps 
already  mentioned.  What  this  pilot  of  Koberval 
made  on  the  spot  we  know  not,  but  he  attempted,  in  1545,  in 
a  rude  way  to  draw  upon  his  experiences  in  a  little  treatise. 
This  manuscript  Cosmogntphie^  in  which  the  coast-lines  are 
washed  in  at  the  top  of  its  sheets,  is  preserved  in  the  National 
Library  at  Paris.  Several  modern  writers  have  used  them,  and 
the  sketches  have  been  more  than  once  copied.  Bibliographers 
know  better,  however,  a  little  chapbook,  which  ran  through  at 
least  four  editions  in  the  interval  before  new  interest  in  Canada 
was  awakened  by  Champlain.  It  was  first  published  in  1559, 
after  the  death  of  Allefonsce  ;  and  his  name,  which  api)ears  in  the 
title,  Lcs  Voi/(tges  avantuveux  da  Caplinlne  Aiff'ouce  Sainton- 
f/eois^  was  apparently  made  prominent  to  help  the  s"^o  of  the 
book,  rather  than  to  indicate  the  intimate  connection  of  the 
redoubtable  i)ilot  with  it.  His  manuscript  Co.smof/rajtliic  had 
been  prepared  by  himself  for  the  royal  eye,  while  this  printed 
production,  which  was  issued  at  Poictiers,  was  dressed  up  by 
others  for  the  common  herd,  without  close  adherence  to  the 
manuscript.  A  i)opular  local  bard  sets  forth  pretty  nnich  all 
we  know  of  its  hero  in  some  preliminary  verses.  Like  all 
chapbooks,  the  little  volume  has  become  rare ;  and  when  a  copy 
was  sold  in  Dr.  Court's  collection  (1885),  it  was  claimed  that 
only  three  copies  had  been  sold  in  France  in  thi)'ty  years. 
The  most  prolific  map-maker  of  this  period  in  Europe  was 
Baptista  Agnese  of  Venice.  He  had  a  deft  hand, 
which  made  his  portoldnos  merchantable.  The  dex- 
terity of  their  drawing  has  perhaps  enhanced  their  value  enough 
to  prevent  careless  wear  of  them,  so  that  they  are  not  iufre- 
(luent  in  Italian  libraries,  and  will  be  found  in  almost  all  tlie 
large  collections  in  Europe.     One  certainly  has  found  its  way 


AGXKSK  AND  RAMUSIO. 


AT 


to  America,  and  is  pn'servod  in  tlio  Cartor-Brown  Lil»iarv  at 
I'rovitU'nco.  Thoiifjli  Aj;nese  was  n)akin^  tlu-so  maps  for  over  a 
(juiutcr  of  a  century,  beginning  about  the  time  of  Cartier's 
;i(ti\ity,  ho  never  much  varied  fi^)m  the  conventional  types 
wliich  successively  marked  tlio  stages  of  gcograpliical  know- 
ledge. He  has  hardly  a  map  which  can  bo  accounted  a  turu- 
ing-iK)iut  in  American  geography,  and  his  <lrafts  simply  folhiw 
the  prevailing  n(»ti(ms. 

Tims  it  was  that  for  sixteen  years  after  Cartier  and  Kober- 
viil  had  finished  their  work,  the  French  ])ublic  was  made  ac- 
(juainted  only  with  the  Bref  JiCcit  aiul  the  scant  narrative  to 
which  the  popularity  of  Allefonsco's  name  had  given  a  forced 
currency.  The  Euroijcan  scholar  fared  better  than 
tiie  provnicial  J^renchman,  for  the  third  vohune  of 
the  liaccoltn  of  Ramusio,  which  was  devoted  wholly  to  Ameri- 
ciui  discovery,  had  appeared  in  Venice  in  1550.  It  is  a  chief 
source  still  to  bo  consulted  for  the  earliest  explorations  of  the 
St.  Lawrence  region.  It  is  hero  that  we  find  an  account  of  that 
••  Gran  Capitano,"  identified  with  the  Dieppese  navigator,  Jean 
Piu  inentier,  who  visited  the  Baccalaos  region  in  the  early  years 
of  that  century.  Here,  too,  wo  derive  a  scant  knowledge  of 
Dt'iiys  and  Aubert,  as  already  mentioned.  But  it  is  concerning 
the  first  voyage  of  Cartier  that  Ramusio  helps  us  most.  AVhere 
he  got  his  records  of  that  enterprise  of  1534,  it  is  not  easy  to 
conjecture,  and  what  he  says  remained  for  a  long  while  the  sum 
of  all  that  was  known  concerning  it.  That  there  were  origi- 
nally several  manuscript  texts  of  this  narrative,  varying  enough 
in  the  copying  to  make  differences  that  became  distinguisha- 
])k',  appears  to  be  certain ;  but  it  is  not  so  easy  to  trace  them 
distinctively  in  the  various  printed  texts  which  have  boer 
published.  The  text  in  Ramusio  was  without  doubt  used  by 
John  Florio  in  making  the  early  English  translation  (London, 
1580),  which  is  the  source  of  most  that  has  appeared  in  th.i.t 
language  respecting  the  voyage.  A  Norman  publisher  at  l?ouen 
])rinted  a  French  text,  and  it  is  not  quite  certain  thai;  lio  used 
Kanuisio.  It  has  been  suspected  that,  in  jiretending  to  make  a 
translation,  this  editor  may  possibly  have  used  an  offi-  ^art 
cial  narrative,  and  that  his  pretense  was  intended  to 
conceal  a  surreptitious  use  of  a  forbidden  paper.  When  Tross 
reprinted  this  little  book  (Paris,  18G5),  he  could  find  only  one 


UT  uar- 
mtives. 


M 


1  ,M 


:?>^MM 


i;.! 


i: 


if 


I  ! 


\m 


58 


CARTOGRAPHICAL   RESULTS,  1542-1603. 


Gomara. 


copy,  and  tluit  was  in  the  great  Paris  Library ;  but  Harrisse 
later  discovered  a  copy  in  the  Sainte  Genevieve  Library.  The 
fact  that  the  book  has  nearly  passed  out  of  sight  might  indi- 
cate, as  with  the  Bref  liecit^  that  there  was  either  a  suppres- 
sion of  it,  or  an  inordinately  hard  use  of  it  by  readers.  Two 
years  after  publishing  this  Discours  chi  Voyage  (18G7),  Tross 
surjjrised  the  critics  by  publishing  a  llelation  or'ujinale^  as  if 
it  were  Cartier's  own  narrative  of  this  first  voyage.  The  argu- 
ments of  Michelant,  the  editor,  in  supporting  this  view  of  its 
authenticity  are  strong,  but  hardly  conclusive.  This  precious 
manuscript  was  discovered  in  the  Paris  Library  in  1867,  having 
previously  escaped  notice. 

In  the  year  before  the  appearance  of  the  American  section 
of  Kamusio,  and  probably  two  years  after  that  Italian  editor 
had  gathered  his  material,  the  Spanish  historian,  Go- 
mara, showed  in  his  Ilistoria  General  (Saragossa, 
1555),  that  intelligence  of  Cartier's  exploits  had  reached  him 
in  some  confused  form.  Indeed,  Gomara  is  rarely  critical 
in  what  he  offers.  It  will  be  remembered  that  Cartier  had 
given  the  name  of  "  Sainct  Laurens  "  to  a  small  estuary  in  the 
gulf,  and  it  has  never  been  quite  established  when  the  same 
name  gained  currency  as  the  appellation  of  the  gulf  itself,  and 
of  the  great  river  of  Canada.  Nevertheless,  Gomara  writes  in 
1555,  or  perhaps  a  year  earlier,  that  "  a  great  river  called  San 
Lorenzo,  which  some  think  an  arm  of  the  sea  [i.  e.  leading  to 
CathayJ,  has  been  sailed  up  for  two  hundred  leagues,  and  is 
called  by  some  the  Strait  of  the  Three  Brothers." 

AVe  may  consider  that  from  the  Rotz,  Vallavd,  Cabot,  and 
Desceliers  maps,  jn-etty  nearly  all  the  ground  that  (^avtier's 
own  maps  could  have  disclosed  is  deducible  by  the  careful  stu- 
dent, and  that  a  large  part  of  our  history  of  this  obscure  period 
is  necessarily  derived  from  such  studies.  Now,  what  was  the 
effect  of  these  cartographical  records  upon  the  maps  of  the  St. 
Lawrence  for  the  rest  of  that  century  ? 

This  question  brings  us  to  consider  nearly  all  the  leading 
Cartogr.v  Europcau  cartograplicrs  of  the  sixteenth  century,  to 
t'eenu.ce''u-  whatcvcr  maritime  peoples  they  belong.  The  most 
*"'"y'  famous  and  learned   of  the  German  cosmographers, 

Sebastian  Miinster,  contented  himself  with  insularizing  a  region 


and 
[■tier's 

stu- 
)erio(l 
IS  the 
leSt. 

jading 

iry,  to 

most 

i)lievs, 


PEDRO  MEDINA. 


59 


which  he  associated  with  the  earlier  Coi'tereal.  Pedro  Medina, 
the  leading  Spanish  writer  on  seamanship,  in  his  Arte  de  Nave- 
(lar,  and  in  other  books,  for  a  score  of  years  after  this,  used  a 


PART  OF  MEDINA'S  MAP,  1M5. 


map  on  which  there  was  merely  a  conventional  gulf  and  river. 
Baptista  Agnese  was  continuing  to  figure  the  coast  about  New- 
foundland in  absolute  ignorance  of  the  French  discoveries  of 
ten  years  before. 


I 


/i      :lf  ■ 


1  flv 


;i  !r 


:  :i  ,fc 


i 


I  ill 


mi 


1 


\  I'-i  '  '^'    ' 


Mi 

"i 

if 


'      If   f  « 


'J'i 


si 


m 


60 


CARTOGRAPHICAL   RESULTS,  1542-1603. 


m 


■■illiiir 


sft. 


GASTALDI. 


61 


''■V<>''V. 


m 


4' 


1 


AVe  are  in  1546  first  introduced  to  Giu- 
eomo  Gustaldi,  a  Venetian  map-maker  of 
reputation  throi; .  V.  ^ut  Italy.     He 

/  '  1  •    1  •         Gnstal.li. 

gives  us  a  mii'>  .vlnch  was  in- 
eluded  in  Lafreri's  atlas.  It  looks  like  a 
distinct  recognition  of  Cartier,  in  a  long 
river  which  Hows  into  a  bay  behind  an 
island.  This  is  the  more  remarkable  be- 
cause, when  he  was  employed  two  years 
later  to  make  the  maps  for  the  Venetian 
edition  of  Ptolemy  (1548),  he  reverted  to 
the  old  pre-Cartier  notions  of  an  archipel- 
ago and  rudimentary  rivers. 

When  Kamusio  was  gathering  his  Amer- 
ican data  at  this  time,  he  depend- 

^     ,   ,  _,  ^  Frascastoro. 

ed  on  an  old  friend,  xrascastoro, 
to  supply  the  illustrative  maps.  This  gen- 
tleman, now  in  advanced  years,  was  living 
on  his  estate  near  Verona,  and  in  correspon- 
dence with  geographical  students  through- 
out Euroi^e.  Oviedo  had  sent  some  nav- 
igator's charts  to  him  from  Sjiain,  and 
Kamusio  tells  us  that  similar  information 
had  come  to  him  from  France  relative  to  the 
discoveries  in  New  France.  These  charts, 
placed  by  Frascastoro  in  Eamusio's  hands, 
were  by  this  editor  committed  to  Gastaldi. 
The  result  was  the  general  map  of  America 
which  ajipears  in  the  third  volume  of  the 
liaccolta.  This  map  is  singularly  inex- 
pressive for  the  Baccalaos  region.  Some- 
thing more  definite  is  revealed  in  another 
map,  more  confined  in  its  range.  A  study 
of  this  last  map  makes  one  feel  as  if  the 
rudimentary  rivers  of  the  Ptolemy  map 
(1548)  had  suggested  a  network  of  rivers, 
stretching  inland.  It  has  one  feature  in  the 
shoals  about  Sable  Island  so  peculiar  and  so 
closely  resembling  that  feature  in  Kotz's 
map,  that  Gastaldi  must  have  worked  with 


1 

''^B^^^^^^^K 

f 

R^ 

11 

f^M 


;  i'  ; 


h 


il!. 


Ml 


,f 


>      '•,;i 


Si 


■wpWWW11HWyMW.W  !■ 


it!"*' 


iill 

I 
S 


62 


CARTOGRAPHICAL  RESULTS,  inp-leos. 


Freire,  etc. 


that  map  before  him,  or  he  must  have  used  the  soui-ces  of  that 
map.  With  this  exception,  there  is  absohitely  nothing  in  the 
map  showing  any  connection  with  the  cartography  of  the  Cartier- 
Roberval  expeditions.  These  features  stand,  in  fact,  for  earlier 
notions,  and  are  made  to  illustrate  the  narrative  of  the  "  Gran 
Capitano." 

There  is  a  Portuguese  map  by  Johannes  Freire,  which  must 
have  been  based  on  Cartier's  second  voyage,  for  it 
leaves  undeveloped  the  west  coast  of  Newfoundland, 
which  Cartier  followed  in  1534.  Another  Portuguese  map, 
which  at  one  time  was  owned  by  Jomard,  shows  acquaiutauce 
with  both  the  first  and  second  voyages  of  Cartier,  as  does  the 
Portuguese  atlas  with  French  leanings,  which  is  preserved  in 
the  Archives  of  the  Marine  at  Paris,  and  is  ascribed  to  Guil- 
laume  le  Testu.  A  popular  map  by  Bellei'o,  used  in  various 
Antwerp  publications  of  this  period,  utterly  ignores  the  French 
discoveries. 


J  oLi.  flir{lim 


*-3e2  uU 


tie.  Sj.c  :>.l!ia.9 


\ 


^1 4 


»jii4. 


HOMEM,  1558. 


Homem. 


The  map  of  Homem  in  1558  is  an  intei'esting  one.  It  is  in 
an  atlas  of  this  Portuguese  hydrographer,  preserved  in 
the  British  Museum.  It  is  strongly  indicative  of  in- 
dependent knowledge,  but  whence  it  dame  is  not  clear.  He 
worked  in  Venice,  a  centre  of  such  knowledge  at  this  time ; 
and  Homem's  map  is  a  proof  of  the  way  in  which  nautical  in- 
telligence failed  to  establish  itself  in  the  Atlantic  seajiorts,  but 


HOMEM,  RUSCELLI,  ETC. 


03 


rather  found  recognition  for  the  benefit  of  later  scholurs  in  this 
Adriatic  centre.  It  is  in  this  map,  for  instance,  that  we  get  the 
earliest  recognizable  plotting  of  the  Bay  of  Fundy.  But  with 
all  his  alertness,  the  material  which  Kamusio  had  already  used 
resi)ecting  Cartier's  first  voyage  seems  to  have  escaped  him,  or 
perhaps  Homem  failed  to  understand  that  navigator's  track 
where  it  revealed  the  inside  coast  of  Newfoundland.  What  he 
found  in  any  of  the  accounts  of  the  Cartier  voyages  to  warrant 
his  making  the  north  bank  of  the  St.  Lawrence  an  archipelago 
skirting-  the  Arctic  Sea  is  hard  to  say ;  but  Homem  is  not  the 
only  one  who  developed  this  notion.  We  have  seen  that  AUe- 
fonsce  believed  that  the  Saguenay  conducted  to  such  a  sea,  and 
there  are  other  features  of  that  pilot's  sketches  which  are  con- 
sonant with  such  a  view ;  while  a  network  of  straits  and  chan- 
nels pervading  this  Canadian  region  is  a  feature  of  some  en- 
graved maps  at  a  considerably  later  day.  Ilomem,  living  in 
Venice,  most  probably  was  in  consultation  with  Rarausio,  and 
may  have  had  access  to  the  store  of  maps  which  Frascastoro 
submitted  to  Gastaldi.  Indeed,  Ramusio  intimates,  in  the  in- 
troduction to  his  third  volume,  that  this  Canadian  region  may 
yet  be  found  to  be  cut  up  into  islands,  and  he  says  that  the 
reports  of  Cartier  had  left  this  uncertainty  in  his  mind.  The 
stories  which  Cartier  had  heard  of  great  waters  lying  beyond 
the  points  he  had  reached  had  doubtless  something  to  do  with 
these  fancies  of  the  map-makers. 

When  the  learned  Italian,  Ruscelli,  printed  his  translation  of 
Ptolemy  at  Venice  (1561)  he  added  his  own  maps, 
for  he  was  a  professional  cartographer.  He  also  ap- 
parently profited  by  Ramusio's  introduction  to  the  collection  of 
Frascastoro;  for  the  map  which  he  gave  of  "Tierra  nueva" 
reverted  to  he  same  material  of  the  pre-Cartier  period  which 
had  been  used  by  Gastaldi,  showing  that  he  either  was  ignorant 
of  the  claims  of  Cartier's  discoveries,  or  that  he  rejected  tliem. 
Ruscelli  clung  to  this  belief  pertinaciously,  and  never  varied 
his  map  in  successive  editions  for  a  dozen  years  ;  and  during 
this  interval  Agnese  (15G4)  and  Porcacchi  (1572)  copied  him. 

We  have  two  maps  in  1566  in  which  the  Cartier  voyages  are 
recognized,  but  in  quite  different  ways.     The  map  of 
Nicolas  des  Liens  of  Dieppe  was  acquired  b"  the  great 
library  of  Paris  in  1857,  and  the  visitor  there  to-day  can  see  it 


■tti 


t  -jH 


■  ,  ) 


C4 


CAliTOGltAPHICAL  RESULTS,   1542-1003. 


m 


liilf 


under  glass  in  the  geographical  department.  It  is  very  pro- 
nounced in  the  record  of  Cartier;  for  his  name  is  displayed 
along  the  shore  of  a  broad  sound,  which  is  made  to  do  duty 
for  the  St.  Lawrence.  The  other  is  the  map  of  Zal- 
tieri,  with  an  uiscrijition,  m  which  the  author  claims 
to  have  received  late  information  from  the  French.  In  this 
map  the  St.  Lawrence  is  merely  a  long,  waving  line,  and  the 
river  is  made  to  flow  on  each  side  of  a  large  island  into  a  bay 
studded  with  islands. 


IM^M 


MERCATOR,   15G9. 


Three  or  four  years  later,  we  come  to  the  crowning  work  of 
Gerard  Mercator  in  his  great  planisphere  of  1560 : 
and  a  year  later  to  the  atlas  of  the  famous  Flemish 
geographer  who  did  so  much  to  revolutionize  cartograjdiy.  — 
Abraham  Ortelius.     The  great  bay  has  now  become,  with  Mei- 


Mercntor. 
Ortelius. 


>:. 


-«c 

|0U 

r 

5_^ 

^ 

^» 

% 

% 

k^'■^ 

X.  EI! CA  TOR,    on  TELl L'S. 


tJO 


I  ti 


ratoi',  the  Gulf  of  St.  LawnMice  (^Sinus  Lf/in'oitii):  but  the 
main  river  is  left  without  a  name,  and  is  carried  tar  west  be- 
yond llochelaga  (Montreal)  to  a  water-shed,  which  separates 


ORTELIUS,  l.'TO. 

the  great  interior  valley  of  the  continent  from  the  Pacific 
slope.  Here  was  what  no  one  had  before  attempted  in  interpre- 
tation of  the  vague  stories  which  Cartier  had  heard  from  the 
Indians.     Mercator  makes  what  is  a])parently  the  Ottawa  open 


li: 


i' 


iTi; 


-!;ii^ 


m 


n 


I' 


!!  i" 

i  ' 

I  I 

:  'i. 


A 


Ml 


HM' 


'! ! 


66 


CARTOGRAPHICAL   RESULTS,   1542-lGO.l. 


a  waterway,  as  Cartier  could  have  fancied  it,  when  he  gazed 
from  the  summit  of  Mont  Royale.  This  passage  carried  the 
imagination  into  the  great  country  of  the  Saguenay,  which  the 
Indians  told  of  as  bounding  on  a  large  body  of  fresh  water.  It 
seems  easy  to  suppose  that  this  was  an  interpretation  of  that 
route  which  in  the  next  generation  conducted  many  a  Jesuit  to 
the  Georgian  Bay,  and  so  developed  the  ui)per  lakes  long  be- 
fore the  shores  of  Lake  Erie  were  comprehended.  Not  one  of 
the  earlier  maps  had  divined  this  possible  solution  of  Cartier's 
problem ;  and  Mercator  did  it,  so  far  as  we  can  now  see,  with 
nothing  to  aid  him  but  a  study  of  Cartier's  narrative,  or  possi- 
bly of  Cartie\'s  maps  or  data  copied  from  them.  It  was  one  of 
those  feats  of  prescience  through  comparative  studies  which  put 
that  Flemish  geographer  at  the  head  of  his  profession.  By  a 
similar  insight  he  was  the  first  to  map  out  a  great  interior  valley 
to  the  continent,  separated  from  the  Atlantic  slope  by  a  moun- 
tainous range  that  could  well  stand  for  the  Alleghanies.  Dr. 
Kohl  suf^gests  that  Mercator  might  have  surmised  this  eastern 
water-shed  of  the  great  continent  by  studying  the  reports  of 
De  Soto  in  his  passage  to  the  Mississippi,  during  the  very 
year  when  Cartier  and  Roberval  were  developing  the  great 
northern  valley.  There  was  yet  no  conception  of  the  way  in 
which  these  two  great  valleys  so  nearly  touched  at  various 
points  that  the  larger  was  eventually  to  be  entered  from  the 
lesser. 

Before  Mercator's  death  (1594),  he  felt  satisfied  that  the 
great  mass  of  fresh  water,  to  which  the  way  by  the  Ottawa 
pointed,  connected  with  the  Arctic  seas.  This  he  made  evident 
by  his  globe-map  of  1587.  Earlier,  in  1570,  he  had  conven- 
iently hidden  the  uncertainty  by  partly  covering  the  limits  of 
such  water  by  a  vignette.  Hakluyt  in  the  same  year 
(1587)  thought  it  best  to  leave  undefined  the  connec- 
tions of  such  a  fresh-water  sea.  The  map-makers  struggled  for 
many  years  over  this  uncertain  northern  lake,  which  Mercator 
had  been  the  first  to  suggest  from  Cartier's  data.  Orfcelius  also 
(1570,  1575,  etc.)  was  induced  to  doubt  the  fresh  character  of 
this  sea,  and  made  it  a  mere  •  gulf  of  the  Arctic  Ocean, 
stretched  toward  the  south.  In  this  he  was  followed  by  Popel- 
liniere  (1582),  Gallaius,  (1585),  Miinster  (1595),  Linschoten 
(1598),  Botero  (1603),  and  others.     It  is  fair  to  observe,  how- 


Interior 
water. 


ll 


i  ;i 


# 


THEORETICAL  LAKES. 


07 


ever,  that  Ortelius  in  one  of  his  maps  (1575)  has  shunned  the 
conchisiou,  and  Metellus  (1600)  was  similarly  cautious  when  he 
used  the  customary  vignette  to  cover  what  was  doubtful.  There 
was  at  the  same  time  no  lack  of  believers  in  the  fresh-water 
theory,  as  is  apparent  in  the  map  of  Judaeis  (1593),  De  Bry 
(1596),  Wytfliet  (1597),  and  Quadus  (1600),  not  to  name 
others.  These  theorizei's,  while  they  connected  it  with  a  salt 
northern  sea,  made  current  for  a  while  the  name  of  Lake  Ooni- 
bas,  as  applied  to  the  fresh-water  basin.  This  body  of  water 
seemed  in  still  later  maps  after  Hudson's  time  to  shift  its  posi- 
tion, and  was  merged  in  the  great  bay  discovered  by  that  navi- 


.   l( 


ri'i 


I'} 


iil 


■^ys"^ 


JUDAEIS,  1503. 


gator.  It  was  not  till  a  suggestion  appeared  in  one  of  the  maps 
of  the  Arnheim  Ptolemy  of  1597,  made  more  emphatic  by 
Molineaux  in  1600,  that  this  flitting  interior  sea  was  made  to 
be  the  source  of  the  St.  Lawrence,  while  it  was  at  the  same 
time  supposed  to  have  some  outlet  in  the  Arctic  Ocean.  The 
great  interior  lakes  were  then  foreshadowed  in  the  "  Lacke  of 
Tadenac,  the  bounds  whereof  are  unknown,"  as  Molineaux's 
legend  reads. 

The  English  seamen  had  become  active  in  this  geographical 
quest  very  shortly  after  Mercator  and  Ortelius  had  English 
well  established  their  theories  in  the  public  mind.    Sir  '"''^'■''**- 
Humphrey  Gilbert  had  indeed  penetrated  this  region  ;  but  when 


:.i  lit 


i    it 


!  i 


i 


;  1  .* 

If 
is 

il 


m 


m 


68 


CARTOGRAPHICAL   RESULTS,   154J-1GUJ. 


he  i)ublished  his  map  in  1570,  he  hail  helped  to  popuhirize 
a  belief  in  a  iimltituiUnous  gathering  of  islands  in  what  was 
now  called  the  land  of  Canada.  Frobisher's  explorations  were 
farther  to  the  north,  and  his  map  (1578)  professed  that  in  these 
higher  latitudes  there  was  a  way  through  the  continent,  llak- 
luvt,  in  his  Wcstct'nc  Plantinn^  tells  us  that  the  bruit 
of  Frobisher's  voyage  had  reached  Ortelius,  and  had 
induced  that  geographer  to  come  to  England  in  1577,  "  to  prye 
aii'l  looke  into  the  secretes  of  Frobisher's  Voyadge."  Ilak'iyt 
further  says  that  this  "  greate  geographer"  told  him  at  this 
time  "  that  if  the  warres  of  Flaunders  had  not  bene,  they  of 


Sept  CxX-ti. 


the  Lowe  Countries  had  meant  to  have  discovered  those  part(>s 
of  America  and  the  northweste  straite  before  this  tyme."  Hak- 
luyt had  it  much  at  heart  to  invigorate  the  English  with  a  spirit 
of  discovery,  and  the  treatise  just  (pu)ted  was  written  for  that 
purpose.  "■  Yf  wee  doe  procrastinate  the  i)lantinge,"  he  says, 
"  the  Frenche,  the  Normans,  the  Brytons  or  the  Duclie  or  some 
other  nation  will  not  onely  prevente  us  of  tlie  mightie  Baye  of 
St.  Lawrence,  where  they  have  gotten  the  starte  of  us  already, 
thoughe  wee  had  the  same  i-evealed  to  us  by  bookes  published 
and  piinted  in  Englishe  before  them."  It  is  not  easy  to  satisfy 
one's  self  as  to  what  Ilakluyt  refers,  when  he  implies  that  pre- 


vious t( 
iiig  ref 
tors  ha 
iiientioi 
translat 
tier's  fii 
on  Hal 
what  se 

The 
up  an  ii 


g'one  to 
While  in 
such  thin 
erie,"  ma 
sj)ceting  ( 
and  Fren 
(hew  atte 
that  can  I 
la-a."  ^ 
l>y  Lake 
from  the 


//.I KL U YT,  MOLINEA UX. 


69 


vious  to  (  rtier's  voyage  there  had  heen  English  books  mak- 
iii<;  reference  to  the  St.  Lavvreneo  Ciiilf.  Modern  investiga- 
tors have  in  fact  found  in  English  books  only  the  scantiest 
mention  of  American  ex})lorati()ns  before  Eden  printed  his 
translation  of  Miinster  in  1553,  nearly  twenty  years  after  Car- 
tier's  first  voyage.  The  late  Dr.  Charles  Deane,  in  connnenting 
oil  Hakluyt's  words,  could  give  no  satisfactory  explanation  of 
what  seems  to  be  their  plain  meaning. 

The  year  befoi-e  Hakluyt  wrote  this  sentence,  he  had  given 
up  an  intention  of  joining  in  Gilbert's  last  expedition,  and  had 


MOLINEAUX'S  MAP,  1000. 

gone  to  Paris  (1583)  as  chaplain  to  Sir  Edward  Staft'ord. 
While  in  that  city  we  find  him  busy  with  "  diligont  inquiries  of 
such  things  as  may  yeeld  any  light  imto  our  westerne  discov- 
erio,"  making  to  this  end  such  investigations  as  lie  could  re- 
specting current  and  contemplated  movements  of  the  Spanish 
and  French.  In  this  same  essay  on  WcxtcDic  l*/anf hi f/  Ihiklnyt 
drew  attention  to  what  he  understood  Cartier  to  say  of  a  river 
tliat  can  be  followed  for  three  months  "  southwarde  f  rom  IToche- 
laga."  "Whether  this  refers  to  some  Indian  story  of  a  way 
l)y  liake  Champlain  and  the  Hudson,  oi'  to  the  longer  route 
from  the  Iroquois  country  to  the  Ohio  and  Mississippi,  may  be 


^hIISPi 

t      ? 

I 


li  ; 


]*' 


A 


m 


'Ul 


70 


CAirrOGRAPIIICAL   RESULTS,   154^-1003. 


a  question ;  if  indeed  it  nmy  not  mean  that  the  St.  Lawreiici! 
itself  bent  towards  the  south  and  found  its  rise  in  a  wurnier 
clime,  as  the  cartographers  who  were  contemporaries  of  Ihik- 
luyt  made  it.  Hakluyt  further  translates  what  Cartier  makes 
Donnacona  and  other  Indians  say  of  these  distant  parts,  where 
the  peojjle  are  "  clad  with  clothes  as  wee  [the  Frentfh]  are, 
very  honest,  and  many  inhabited  townes,  and  that  they  hail 
greate  store  of  golde  and  redde  copper ;  and  that  within  the 
land  beyonde  the  said  firste  ryver  unto  Ilochelaga  and  Saguy- 
nay  ys  an  iland  envyroned  rounde  aboute  with  that  and  otlier 
ryvers,  and  that  there  is  a  sea  of  freshe  water  founde,  as  they 
have  hearde  say  of  those  of  Sagnenay,  there  was  never  man 
hearde  of,  that  founde  vnto  the  begynnynge  and  ende  thereof." 
Here  is  the  warrant  that  Mercator  and  his  followers  found  for 
their  sea  of  sweet  water.  Hakluyt  adds :  "  In  the  Frenche  origi- 
nall,  which  I  sawe  in  the  Kinge's  library  at  Paris,  yt  is  further 
put  downe,  that  Donnacona,  the  Kinge  of  Canada,  in  his  barke 
had  traueled  to  that  contrie  where  cynamon  and  cloves  are  had." 
Hakluyt,  with  the  tendency  of  his  age,  could  not  help  associat- 
ing this  prolonged  passage  with  a  new  way  to  Cathay,  and  ho 
cites  in  support  "  the  judgmente  of  Gerardus  M«3rcator,  that 
excellent  geogi*apher,  in  a  letter  of  his,"  which  his  son  had 
shown  to  Hakluyt,  saying,  "  There  is  no  doubte  but  there  is  a 
streighte  and  sliorte  waye  open  unto  the  west,  even  to  Cathaio." 
Hakluyt  then  closes  his  list  of  reasons  for  believing  in  this  ulti- 
mate passage  by  adding,  in  the  words  of  Ramusio,  that  "  if  the 
Frenchmen  in  this  their  Nova  Francia  woulde  have  discovered 
upp  farther  into  the  lande  towardes  the  west  northwest  partes, 
they  shoulde  have  founde  the  sea  and  have  sailed  to  Cathaio." 

Before  Hakluyt  published  any  map  of  his  own,  there  were 
two  English  maps  which  became  prominent.  In  1580, 
M^ok.  Dr.  John  Dee  presented  to  Queen  Elizabeth  a  map 
which  is  preserved  in  the  British  Museum.  It  has 
nothing  to  distinguish  it  from  the  other  maps  of  the  time, 
which  show  a  St.  Lawrence  River  greatly  prolonged.  Tlie 
second  map  was  far  more  distinctive  and  more  speculative. 
Ruscelli  iu  1561  and  Martines  in  1578  had  represented  the 
country  south  of  the  Lower  St.  Lawrence  as  an  island,  with  a 
channel  on  the  west  of  it,  connecting  the   Atlantic  with  the 


DEE  AND  LOK. 


71 


;i('fit  rivor  of  Canada.      This  view  was  embodied  by  Master 
Micliaci  ijok  in  tills  othei  map,  in  union  with  other  prevalent 


o 

B3 
S« 

D 


notions,  already  mentioned,  of   a  neighboring  archipelago  be- 
tween the  St.  Lawrence  and  the  Arctic  waters.     In  this  way 


:f!tH 


;iil 


:!!l|i  i 


i'  !! 


•  ■ 


I 


!UI 


I! 


m 


72 


CA  li  TOGRA  PHICA  L   RES  UL  TS,   1542-1603. 


Lok  made  the  great  river  rathev  an  ocean  inlet  than  an  affluent 
of  the  gulf.  Hakluyt  adopted  this  map  in  his  little  Divers 
Voyages  (1582)  to  illustrate  an  account  of  the  voyage  of  Ver- 
razano,  and  curiously  did  so,  because  there  is  no  trace  of  Verra- 
zano  in  the  map  except  the  great  western  sea,  which  had  long- 
passed  into  oblivion  with  other  cartographers,  although  there 
was  a  curious  reminder  of  it  in  1585,  when  Kalph  Lane  on  the 
Carolina  coast  learned  that  the  Roanoke  River  at  its  springs 
sometimes  got  the  spray  of  the  western  ocean.  We  have  already 
presented  this  Lok  map  to  the  reader  [iuite^  p.  20]. 


HAKLUYT-MARTYR  JIAP,  1587. 

When  Hakluyt  again  came  before  the  public  in  an  edition  of 
the  eight  decades  of  Peter  Martyr's  J)e  Orhe  Xovo, 
which  he  printed  at  Paris  in  1587,  he  added  a  map 
bearing  the  initials  "  F.  G."  This  mnp  may  be  supposed  to 
embody  the  conclusions  which  Hakluyt  had  renched  after  his 
years  of  collecting  material.  He  had,  as  we  have  seen,  alread} 
reviewed  the  field  in  his  Wef^tcvne  Pldntbuj.,  where  he  had 
adopted  the  Mercator  theory  of  the  access  by  the  Ottawa  to 
the  great  fresh-water  lake  of  the  Indian  tales. 

Jacques  Noel,  a  grand-nephew  of  Cartier,  writing  from  St. 
Cartier'8  Malo  iu  1587,  refers  to  this  F.  G.  map  of  Hakluyt  as 
maps  putting  down  "the  great  lake  "  of  Canaila  nuich  too 


B,i1 


^. 


n  of 

map 
I  to 

his 
'ady 

had 
a  to 

St. 
:t  as 
1  too 


HAKLUYT  AND   ORTELIUS. 


73 


Ortelius. 


far  to  the  north  to  be  in  accordance  with  one  of  Cartier's  maps 
which  he  professed  to  have.  This  Noel  had  been  in  the  coun- 
try, and  reported  the  Indians  as  saying  that  the  great  lake  was 
ten  days  above  the  rapids  (near  Montreal).  He  had  been  at 
the  rapids,  and  reported  them  to  be  in  44°  north  latitude. 

In  1590,  Hakluyt  was  asking  Ortelius,  through  a  relative 
of  the  Antwerp  geographer  then  living  in  London,  to 
publish  a  map  of  the  region  north  of  Mexico  and  to- 
wards the  Arctic  seas.  Ortelius  signified  his  willingness  to  do  so 
if  Hakluyt  would  furnish  the  data.  In  the  same  year,  the  Eng- 
lish geographer  wrote  to  Ortelius  at  Antwerp,  urging  him,  if  he 
made  a  new  map,  to  insert  "  the  strait  of  the  Three  Brothers  in 
its  proper  place,  as  there  is  still  hope  of  discovering  it  some 
(lay,  and  we  may  by  placing  it  in  the  map  remove  the  error  of 
those  cosmographers  who  do  not  indicate  it."  It  is  apparent 
by  Hakluyt's  accompanying  drawing  that  he  considered  the 
"  Fretum  trium  fratrum  "  to  be  in  latitude  70°  north. 

There  was  a  temptation  to  the  geographer  to  give  a  striking 
character  to  the  reports  or  plots  of  returned  navigators.  Mer- 
cator  compliments  Ortelius  on  his  soberness  in  using  such  plots, 
and  complains  that  geographical  truth  is  much  corrupted  by 
ina])-makers,  and  that  those  of  Italy  are  specially  bad. 

The  maps  that  succeeded,  down  to  the  time  when  Champlain 
made  a  new  geography  for  the  vaUey  of  the  St.  Lawrence, 
added  little  to  the  conceptions  already  mastered  by  the  chief 
cartographers.  The  idea  of  the  first  explorers  that  America 
was  but  the  eastern  limits  of  Asia,  revived  by  Schciner  and 
Fianciscus  Monachus  before  1530,  may  be  said  to  have  van- 
ished at  the  same  time  ;  for  the  map  of  ^lyritius  of  near  t^iis 
date  (1587,  1590)  is  one  of  tlie  latest  maps  to  hold  to  the 
belief. 

While  all  this  speculative  geography  was  forming  and  disap- 
jK'aring  with  an  obvious  tendency  to  a  true  conception  of  the 
i)liysical  realities  of  the  problems,  there  was  scarcely   „ 
any  attempt  made  to  help  solve  the  question  by  explo-  of  expiora- 
ration.    There  was  indeed  a  continuance  of  the  fishing 
voyages  of  the  Normans  and  Bretons  to  the  Banks,  and  not 
unlikely  the  English  m;'v  have  participated  in  the  business. 
Such  fishermen  doubtlo.ss  ran  into  the  inlets  near  the  gulf  to 


TWf 

If 

1 

;r 

H- 

' 

:(/ 

) 

4| 

^ 

i  1  : 

^^^»| 

'  \\ 

Hb 

% 

■     !     • 

1 

;  1 

'4 

■  X 

'■  '  >  '  '•' 

'  It^ 

•    1    '/  ; 
1     J 

'-:■',',■{■ 

;    -    :t 

^  m 

•  m 

'■I' 

1 

J         ': 

'■<, 

^  '^i" 

^  ^        ; 

Ifi 

<              ■' 

^'i^ 

■ 

IP  i^ 


:«-iii      i' 


'ill  i^l 

it* .. ,  i 


u. 


74 


CARTOGRAPHICAL   RESULTS,   154-3-1603. 


(Ivy  their  fish  and  barter  trinkets  with  the  natives  for  wahus 
tusks ;  but  we  find  no  record  for  many  years  of  any  one  turning 
the  point  of  Gaspe  and  going  up  the  river.  There  was  at  tlie 
same  time  no  official  patronage  of  exploration.  The  politics 
of  France  were  far  too  unquiet.  Henry  II.  had  as  much  as  ho 
could  do  to  maintain  his  struggles  with  Charles  V.  and  Philip  11. 
St.  Quentin  and  Gravelines  carried  French  chivalry  down  to 
the  dust.  The  persecution  of  the  Protestants  in  the  brief  reign 
of  Francis  I.,  the  machinations  of  Catharine  de'  Medici  and 
the  supremacy  of  the  Guises,  kept  attention  too  constantly  upon 
domestic  hazards  to  permit  the  government  to  glance  across  the 
sea.  All  efforts  under  Charles  IX.  to  secure  internal  peace 
were  but  transient.  Every  interval  of  truce  between  the  rival 
religions  only  gave  opportunities  for  new  conspiracies.  The 
baleful  night  of  St.  Bartholomew  saw  thirty  thousand  Huguenots 
plunged  into  agony  ana  death.  The  wars  of  the  League  which 
followed  w^ere  but  a  prolonged  combat  for  Huguenot  existence. 
Henry  III.,  during  fifteen  years  of  blood,  played  fast  and  loose 
with  both  sides.  Henry  IV.  fought  at  Arques  and  Ivry  to 
preserve  his  crown,  and  abjured  his  faith  in  the  end  as  a  bet- 
ter policy  to  the  same  end.  At  last  these  tumultuous  years 
yielded  to  the  promulgation  of  tlie  famous  edict  at  Nantes 
(April  15,  1598),  and  in  the  rest  which  came  later  the  times 
grew  ripe  for  new  enterprises  beyond  the  sea. 

We  have  seen  that  it  was  to  the  labors  of  Hakluyt  and  Ka- 
musio  during  these  sixty  years  that  we  owe  a  large  part  of  the 
current  knowledge  of  what  were  then  the  last  official  expedi- 
tions to  Canada.  That  private  enterprise  did  not  cease  to  con- 
nect tile  French  ports  with  the  fishery  and  trade  of  the  gulf  and 
its  neighboring  ports  is  indeed  certain,  tliough  (iarncau  speaks 
of  this  interval  as  that  of  a  temporary  abandonment  of  Canada. 
Gosselin  and  other  later  investigators  have  found  entries  made 
of  numerous  local  outfits  for  voyages  from  Ilonfleur  and  otlirr 
harbors.  Such  mariners  never,  however,  so  far  as  we  know, 
contemi)lated  the  making  of  discoveries.  Old  fishermen  aio 
noted  as  having  grown  gray  in  forty  years'  service  on  the 
coast ;  and  there  is  reason  to  believe  that  during  some  seasons 
as  many  as  three  or  four  hundred  fishing-crafts  may  liavc 
.di})ped  to  their  anchors  hereabouts,  and  half  of  them  Frencli. 
Some  of  tliem  added  the  j)ursuit  of  trade,  and  chased  the  wal- 


ininuiir 


LA   ROCHE  AND   CARTIEK'S  HEIRS. 


75 


rus.  Breton  babies  grew  to  know  tlie  cunning  skill  which  in 
leisure  hours  was  bestowed  by  these  niariaers  on  the  ivory  tri- 
fles which  amused  their  households.  Norman  maidens  were 
decked  with  the  fur  which  their  brothers  had  secured  from  the 
iCsquimaux.  Parkman  found,  in  a  letter  of  Menendez  to 
Philip  of  Spain,  that  from  as  far  south  as  the  Potomac,  Indian 
canoes  crawled  northward  along  the  coast,  till  they  found 
Frenchmen  in  the  Newfoundland  waters  to  buy  their  peltries. 
Breard  has  of  late,  in  his  Marine  JVormande,  thrown  consider- 
able light  upon  these  fishing  and  trading  voyagers,  but  there  is 
no  evidence  of  a  customary  passing  into  the  great  river. 

Once,  indeed,  it  seemed  as  if  the  French  monarch,  who  had 
occasionally  sent  an  armed  vessel  to  protect  his  sub-  l„  j{,jj.,,g 
jects  in  this  region  against  the  English,  Spanish,  and  ''^" 
Portuguese,  awoke  to  the  opportunities  that  were  ])assing  ;  and 
in  1577  he  commissioned  Troilus  du  Mesgonez,  Alarcpiis  de  la 
Roche,  to  lead  a  colony  to  Canada,  and  the  project  commanded 
the  confidence  of  the  merchants  of  Rouen,  Caen,  and  Lisieux. 
Captain  J.  Carleill,  writing  in  1583,  in  his  Entenclcd  VoycKjc 
to  America,  tells  us  that  the  French  were  trying  to  overcome 
the  distrust  of  the  Indians,  which  the  kidnapi)ing  exploits  of 
Cartier  had  implanted.  Whcthci  any  such  fear  of  the  native 
animosity  stood  in  the  way  of  La  Poche's  enterprise  or  not  is 
not  evident ;  but  certain  it  is  that  he  did  not  sail,  and  the  king 
remained  without  a  representative  on  the  St.  Lawrence.  Thi? 
sovereign  gave,  however,  in  1588,  in  recpiital  of  claims  made  by 
tlie  heirs  of  Cartier  for  his  unrewarded  services,  a  charter  to 
two  of  that  navigator's  nephews,  Etienne  Charton  and  Jacques 
NOi'l,  in  which  he  assigned  to  them  for  twelve  years  the  rigiit 
to  trade  for  furs  and  to  work  mines,  with  the  i)rivilege  o^  a 
commercial  company.  The  grant  was  made  y)artly  to  enal)le  ihe 
heirs  to  carry  out  Cartier's  injunctions  to  his  descendants  not 
to  abandon  the  country  of  Canada. 

Such  reserved  privileges  were  a  blow  to  the  merchants  of  St. 
Malo,  and  they  drew  the  attention  o'2  the  Breton  parlian^ent  to 
the  monoi)oly  in  such  a  way  that  the  king  found  it  prudent  to 
rescind  the  charter,  exce})t  so  far  as  to  allow  mining  at  Cap  de 
Corijugon.     No  one  knows  where  that  cape  ^\.  s,  or  that  any 

So  a  second  royal  i)r(>ject  came  to 


mining  was  done  there, 
nauglit. 


r 


m 

I  f  Hi 


1 1, 


!i 


\ 


76 


CARTOGRAPHICAL   RESULTS,   15Jtii-1603. 


1590. 


It  would  have  been  better  if  the  first  expedition  that  reall}' 
got  off  had  never  started.  A  few  years  later,  La  Koche,  who 
had  had  umch  tribulation  since  his  last  luckless  effort, 
was  commissioned  (January  12,  1590)  to  lead  once 
more  a  colony  to  the  St.  Lawrence.  By  this  act  that  king  re- 
vived the  powers  which  Francis  I.  had  conferred  on  lioberval. 
Chartering  two  vessels  and,  in  default  of  better  colonists,  fill- 
ing them  with  convicts,  La  Roche  sailed  west  and  made  Sable 
Island.  Such  portion  of  his  company  as  he  did  not  need  while 
exploring  for  a  site,  he  landed  on  this  desert  spot,  not  without 
raising  the  suspicion  that  he  did  not  dare  to  land  them  on  the 
mainland,  for  fear  of  their  deserting  him.  While  searching 
for  a  place  to  settle,  heavy  gales  blew  his  exploring  ships  out  to 
sea,  and  back  to  France.  Those  whom  he  had  abandoned  at 
Sable  Island  were  not  rescued  till  160^,  when  twelve  had  died. 

This  is  the  last  scene  of  that  interval  which  we  have  been 
considering ;  but  in  the  near  future  other  spirits  were  to  ani- 
mate New  France,  in  tho  persons  of  Pontgrav^,  Chaniplain,  and 
their  associates,  and  a  new  period  of  exploration  was  to  begin. 


Ir'H:  I 


ABORTIVE   ATTEMPTS    AT   COLONIZATION. 


1 

i 

i 

CHAPTER  IV. 


:■  ! 


Chauvin. 


1600-1607. 

It  was  in  the  person  of  Francois  Grave  —  who  is  usually 
called  Pontoravd  or  Dupont  Grave,  for  he  was  Sieur 

T-»  i-n<  1  1  111-      Pontgravt'. 

Uu  Pont  —  that  h  ranee  at  last  undertook  the  coloni- 
zation of  Canada.  Pontgrave  was  a  trading  mariner  of  St. 
Malo.  He  had  already,  during  his  voyaging,  ascended  the  St. 
Lawrence  as  far  as  Three  Rivers.  Being  now  desirous  to  back 
a  petition  which  he  had  rendered  for  the  privilege  of  trading 
for  furs  in  Canada,  he  sought  the  patronage  of  a  rich  Honfleur 
merchant,  Pierre  Chauvin,  seigneur  of  Tontuit.  This 
person  was  a  man  of  consideration  and  good  connec- 
tions. He  was  a  Calvinist,  and  had  lived  in  Dieppe  at  one  time. 
It  was  even  averred  that  Henry  IV.  had  rewarded  him  with  a 
})atent  of  nobility  for  his  loyalty.  His  standing  in  the  king's 
eyes  was  not,  it  would  seem,  an  uncertain  element  in  the 
chances  of  royal  support  when  he  allied  himself  with  Pont- 
grave to  promote  them.  But  Pontgrave  was  not  without  a 
merit  of  his  own,  for  he  war  no  stranger  in  the  new  countxy, 
and  he  was  not  unfitted  io  be  the  agent  of  the  monarch  in 
strengthening  the  French  claim  in  that  region,  tc  which  the 
royal  will  was  by  no  means  averse.  Looking  for  further  capi- 
tal to  put  their  purpose  beyond  financial  embarrassment,  the 
two  i)artner3  found  a  willing  contributor  in  Pierre  du  ^■^^^^^  jg 
Guast,  Sieur  de  Monts.  It  was  given  out  that  five  *'°"*^" 
luuidred  men  would  be  carried  to  Tadoussac,  and  that  a  fort 
would  be  built  at  that  point.  This  was  a  footing  which  might 
much  conduce  to  the  establishment  of  a  government,  and  the 
royal  concession  readily  followed. 

The  plan  was  no  sooner  developed  than  it  created  a  jealousy 
sin»ilar  to  that  which  followed  the  combination  of  Noel   and 


*!'t 


78 


ATTEMPTS  AT  COLONIZATION,  1600-1607. 


PontRrnvt' 
nt  Tiiiioiia 
sac,  lliOO. 


Chaton,  ten  years  ov  more  earlier.  The  citizens  of  St.  Malo 
pi'omptly  represented  that  such  a  monopoly  would  abridge  the 
rights  which  they  claimed  to  have  acquired  through  protecting 
the  royal  interests  in  Canada  for  many  years.  These  Malouin 
merchants  appealed  to  the  Breton  parliament,  and  through 
it  to  the  throne,  but  with  no  effect.  Accordingly  Pontgrave  and 
his  associates  went  on  without  interruption  in  preparing  for  the 
voyage.  Four  vessels  were  made  ready,  and  in  the  largest  one, 
the  "  Don  de  Dieu,"  oi  four  hundred  tons,  the  three  leaders  em- 
barked. The  five  hundred  men  which  were  promised  dwindled 
to  a  single  hundred,  and  Chauvin  seems  to  have  been  respon- 
sible for  this,  as  he  was  for  all  matters  which  could  be  made 
to  demand  less  oxi  t-n'titure  and  more  profit. 

The  expetli  uni  made  its  landfall  and  passed  up  to  Tadoussac 
wiV'iont  disaster.  Here  the  scene  from  the  little  ves- 
el-i  nil  ag  in  the  roadstead  was  not  a  very  attractive 
ore  a  uiybody  bent  on  making  a  settlement.  Over 
the  stieto-h  of  ■  aters  there  was  nothing  but  a  dim,  foggy  dis- 
tance, for  th.-  ',>ui(  nt  river  covers  in  its  breadth  i.c  this  point  ;i, 
score  of  miles,  us  it  moves  on  to  the  gulf.  Silvery  porpoises 
mingling  with  the  white  crests  of  the  vexed  waves  were  all  that 
met  the  eye  which  tried  eagerly  to  find  something  to  rest  upon 
throughout  the  monotonous  waste.  A  rocky  point  stretching 
to  the  southwest  formed  a  bay,  where  trading-vessels  could  find 
an  anchorage.  From  far  up  the  Saguenay,  in  the  deep  shadows 
of  its  lefty  crags,  tlie  savage  canoeists  could  come  down  to  bar- 
ter their  bm-dens  of  fur.  Tlie  aiijacent  shores  had  no  aspect 
to  allure  the  agriculturist,  and  Pontgrave,  recalling  the  grassy 
meadows  and  swelling  upland  about  Three  Kivers,  would  nuich 
rather  have  gone  thither  Chauvin,  however,  only  looked  to 
the  chances  of  trade,  and  he  felt  that  at  the  junction  of  these 
two  great  rivers  there  was  the  bett«n*  chance  of  an  exchange  for 
peltries.  Accordingly,  here  it  was  d(\/  "mi.iLd  to  stay,  and  the 
people  were  set  on  shore.  It  was  not  long  before  a  storehouse 
was  constructed  just  by  the  brink  of  t^ie  harbor.  Chaniplain 
found  the  building  standing  eight  years  later,  and  delineated 
it  upon  his  map  of  Tadoussac. 

Once  at  work,  Cliauvin  stuck  steadily  to  his  commerce  for 
furs,  and  soon  filled  his  ships.  This  done,  he  left  sixteen  men 
to  encounter  the  rigors  of  the  winter,  with  such  protection  as 


%. 


p. 


: .  1 


CIIAUVIN  ON   THE  ST.   LAWRENCE. 


79 


^y 


to 
3se 


tor 


liu 
led 


tor 
ion 


a  crazy  hut  could  afford.  Even  the  pitying  attentions  of  the 
neighboring  Indians  did  not  prevent  most  of  this  forlorn  little 
company  dying  before  the  coming  of  spring. 

On  the  return  of  Chauvin  and  the  other  leaders  to  France, 
they  made  some  show  of  their  trafficking  gains  ;  but  chimvin  in 
there  was  little  assurance  to  be  given  of  a  permanent  ^''■'""=^- 
colonization,  or  of    results  from  discovery.     Had  the  ravages 
of  death  among   those  who   had  been    left  behind  been  sus- 
pected, the  satisfaction  in  the  results  would  have  been  still  less. 


Tf=35=5- 


H 


TADOUSSAC  (after  Cliaiiipliim). 

This  is  Champlain's  plan  in  his  edition  of  1013.  Key  :  .1,  Round  Mountain.  /?,  Iiarl)oi-.  (\ 
frcsli-water  brook.  D,  oanip  of  natives  coming  to  tratflL-.  E,  peninsula.  /•",  Point  of  All  Dev- 
ils, r;,  SaKiienay  Kivor.  7A.  Point  aux  Alouettes.  /,  very  rough  mountains  covered  .vith  firs 
and  beeches.     /,,  the  mill  Bode.     .V,  roadstead.     A',  pond.     O,  brook.     7',  Rrassland. 

Precisely  what  there  was  to   prevent  Chauvin   himself  the 
next  year   ^IGOl)  from    going  to  the  St.  Lawrence  ^^.^.^ 
does  n  t  ippear ;  but  ho  is  known  to  have  dispatched 
thither  one   of  his  shi,.s  with  similar  coninunrial  success.     In 
April,  1G02,  he  liimself  made  a  voyage  in  conimand  of   ^^,^^^ 
two  barks,  and  having  had  four  months'  tradi  i«.    at 
Tadoussac,  he  returned  to   Ilonfleur   in   October,  to  find  the 
merchants  of  St.  Malo  still  using  every  device  to  deprive  him 
of    the  continuance  of    his  privileges.     Chauvin  contrived  to 


•  J 


1;; 


I  ill 


H 


\m 


>?'  1 


''i 

1 


iff              'f 

M 


80 


ATTEMPTS  AT  COLONIZATION,   1G00-1GU7. 


IGOS. 


maintain  his  influence  with  the  king,  and  succeeded  (Decem- 
ber 28,  1G02)  in  having  his  concessions  reaffirmed.  But  the 
matter  did  not  rest  there,  and  pending  a  still  further  decision, 
all  French  vessels  were  forbidden  to  proceed  lieyond  Gaspc. 
W^hen  March  (1G03)  came,  the  king  had  reached  a 
determination  to  send  to  Canada  Captain  Coulombier 
of  St.  Malo,  either  separately  or  in  conjunction  with  Pont- 
grave  and  the  Sieur  Prevert,  in  a  single  vessel,  for  trade  and 
discovery,  but  only  for  one  season.  By  this  time  Chauvin  had 
Amyarde  died,  and  Auiyar  dc  Chastcs,  succcediug  to  the  priv- 
cimstes.  ileges,  entered  into  a  partnership  for  prosecuting 
Canadian  enterprise  with  sundry  merchants  of  Kouen  and 
St.  Malo. 

It  was  a  good  deal  to  Henry  IV.  that  De  Chastes  was  strong 
in  the  faith  to  which  the  king  had  been  converted  ;  and  it  was 
a  good  deal  more  to  the  king  that  this  governor  of  Dieppe  had 
been  one  of  the  first  to  give  him  allegiance.  These  were  two 
very  good  reasons  why  De  Chastes  had  little  difficulty  in  get- 
ting the  new  patent  to  establish  himself  in  Canada. 

At  this  point  the  most  commanding  figure  in  the  early  his- 
snmuei  de  ^o^T  o^  Canada  comes  upon  the  scene,  —  Sanuiel  de 
ciiampiain.  Chauiplain.  Those  who  have  searched  the  archives  of 
Brouage,  seeking  to  find  a  date  for  his  birth,  have  for  good 
reason  always  turned  to  about  the  year  1570 ;  but  they  have 
always  looked  in  vain.  If  the  hero,  in  later  years,  was  reticent 
about  his  birth,  we  do  not  find  him  more  helpful  in  other  par- 
ticulars of  his  childhood.  The  authority  is  perhaps  hardly 
irrevocable  which  makes  him  the  son  of  a  fisherman ;  but  it 
seems  dear  his  father  was  a  mariner,  veiy  likely  a  master  mar- 
iner, and  the  family  was  respectable  enough  to  secure  honorable 
mention  in  contemporary  documents.  The  Abbe  Faillon  is  not 
without  a  suspicion  that  the  forename  Samuel,  uncommon 
among  Catholics  and  usual  with  Protestants,  may  indicate  that 
Champlain  was  born  in  a  Huguenot  household.  It  is  certain 
that  Brotiage,  the  i)lace  of  his  birth,  was  quite  within  the  circle 

of  the  Protestant  influence  that  surrounded  La  Ro- 
Prot.»tant     chclle.     The  suspicion  is  not  a  welcome  one  to  his 

Catholic  biographers,  and  they  point  to  his  father's 
name,  A.ntoine,  and  his  mother's,  Marguerite,  as  being  conspicu- 


■■  1 


CHAM  PLAIN'S    YOUTH. 


81 


iiy 


lus 
Ir's 


ously  of  Catholic  savor.  The  latest  Cana«iian  historian,  Kings- 
ford,  does  not  admit  even  a  doubt  that  Champlain  was  born  a 
Protestant. 

The  salt-works  of  Brouage,  long  the  source  of  its  prosperity, 
naturally  attracted  buyers  who  were  interested  in  the  fisheries 
of  the  new  world.  This  mercantile  concourse  kept  pictures 
of  that  daring  industry  on  those  distant  shores  fresh  in  the 


CHAMPLAIN. 
[After  Moncariiet  in  tlie  Lavnl  C/iniiiplaiii'] 

minds  of  its  people.     Amid  such  influences  the  infant  Cham- 
plain  gi*ew  into  youth  and  glided  on  into  maturity. 

Thei'e  was  occasion  in  the  preceding  chapter  to  picture  the 
martial  and  political  turmoil  of  France  in  these  latter  years  of 
the  sixteenth  century.  It  was  shown  to  have  withdrawn  atten- 
tion from  those  fields  of  discovery  to  which  Cartier  had  led  the 
way.  It  was  among  these  scenes  that  Champlain  passed  his 
early  manhood,  seasoning  his  formative  years  in  the  restraints 
and  activities  of  the  camp,  when  not  at  home.     At  other  times 


ml 


'I' 


'I. 

1)    1 

in 


\l 


?  I 


.i  :ri 


jl 

'■ ;  i 

^i^ 


llfl 


li 


'^y 


' 


ii^ 


■I 


82 


ATTEMPTS   AT  COLONIZATION,   1GU0-W07. 


he  was  lu'customcd  to  look  out  with  u  longing  oyo  upon  tho 
Bay  of  Biacay,  suggestive  of  so  much  that  was  daring  and 
dangerous  in  seamanship. 

Speaking  of  life  at  sea,  Chantplain  later  said :  "  I  was  ad- 
dicted to  it  in  my  early  years,  and  through  my  whole  life  I  have 
met  its  i)erils,  on  the  ocean  and  on  the  coasts  of  New  France, 
with  the  hope  of  seeing  the  lily  of  France  able  to  protect  there 
the  holy  Catholic  religion.  '  AVhatever  tho  religion  which 
rocked  his  cradle,  Champlain  as  an  historical  character  indu- 
bitably stands  as  the  champion  of  the  Roman  Clnirch. 

The  peace  of  Vervins  in  1598  had  brought  all  France  into 
peaceful  subjection  to  Henry  of  Navarre,  and  Champlain,  in  his 
Early  Capacity  as  (juartermaster  in  the  army,  had  been  in  the 

career.  ^ast  movements  which  suppressed  the  opposition  in 
Brittany.  A  year  later  (1599),  he  went  to  Spjiin  in  charge  of 
a  French  ship,  carrying  home  some  of  the  Spanish  allies  of  the 
League.  AVhile  in  the  peninsula  he  had  been  placed,  as  an  ex- 
perienced seaman,  in  eomnmnd  of  one  of  the  vessels  forming  a 
fleet  which  the  Spanisli  government  dispatched  to  their  West 
Indian  possessions.  He  was  absent  on  this  service  for  more 
than  two  years.  It  does  not  concern  our  present  purposes  to 
follow  him  in  his  strange  exj)erieiH'es  in  these  southern  waters. 
intiieWest  Tlicy  arc  all  set  forth  in  a  manuscript  written  by 
iiidius.  jjjj,  Q^yj^  himd,  una  embellished  with  passable  colored 
drawings,  which  of  late  years  lias  been  added  to  the  unexam- 
pled Americana  in  the  Carter-Brown  Library  at  Providence, 
^hode  Island.  Once,  thirty  years  ago,  when  this  manuscript 
s  owned  in  Dieppe,  the  Ilakluyt  Society  ])ublished  a  trans- 
Ion  of  it,  and  twenty  years  ago  the  Laval  University,  in  their 
sumptuous  edition  of  Champlain's  writings,  printed  for  the  first 
time  the  oriijinal  text  and  gave  fac-similes  of  the  drawinos. 
There  is  one  passage  in  this  little  narrative  whieh  may  detain 
us  for  a  moment,  since  it  prefigures  Chamjilain's  conceptions  of 
that  great  nortborn  passage  to  Cathay,  to  the  finding  of  which 
he  devoted  his  later  years.  He  is  describing  his  experience  at 
the  Isthmus  of  Darien.  He  says  :  ''•  One  may  judge  that  if  the 
four  leagues  of  land  which  there  are  from  l^anama  to  the  litth; 
river  which  i"ises:  in  the  mountains  and  descends  to  Porto 
l^ello  were  cut  tbvough,  one  might  pass  from  the  South  Sea 
lo  the  ocean  on  the  other  side,  and  thus  shorten  the  route  by 


CHAMPLAIN  ON   THE  ST.  LAWJiEACE. 


83 


Inn 
of 

\vh 
at 

the 

\th 
■to 

by 


more  than  fif t  (  en  luuulre»l  leaf]fufts  ;  and  from  Panama  to  the 
Straits  of  Maj'-cUan  wouhl  he  an  island,  and  from  Panama  to 
tho  New-foimd-landH  wouhl  hu  another  ishind,  so  that  the 
whole  of  America  would  be  in  two  islands." 

It  has  been  suggested  that  Champlain,  after  his  return  to 
France  from  this  S(mtliern  voyage,  had  made  some  report  of  it 
to  the  king,  in  a  way  to  attract  the  royal  attention.  At  all 
events,  since  Do  Chastes  was  much  about  the  court  after  he 
liad  cot  his  patent  from  the  king,  it  is  not  improbable 

?      .  .  ,  .  1.    /ii  1     .     »       Chiimplaln 

that  ni  its  preemcts  a  sturdy  mariner  ot  Cliamplam  s  j"i>i 
experience  would  have  easily  made  himself  conspicu- 
ous to  a  patentee  in  search  of  a  hardy  coadjutor.  That  ui- 
plain  had  attracted  the  attention  of  the  king  would  seem  to  be 
certain  from  the  fact  that  when  De  Chastes  invited  him  to  join 
the  enterprise,  Champlain  deferred  accepting  till  the  royal 
assent  was  given.  This,  when  given,  was  accompanied  by  an  in- 
junction which  made  Champlain  responsible  for  a  report  of  the 
completed  explorations.  Champlain  himself  later  says,  in  dedi- 
cating one  of  his  narratives  to  Henry  IV.,  that  he  was  com- 
missioned by  that  king  to  make  the  most  exact  researches  and 
explorations  in  his  power. 

There  was  much  in  Champlain  to  fit  him  to  become  a  pioneer 
in  such  work.  Ilis  person  was  rugged.  Ilis  strength  was 
equal  to  almost  any  jdiysical  task.  Ilis  constitution  did  not 
succumb  to  exposure  either  of  cold  or  heat.  His  senses  were 
keen  and  sharpened  by  experience.  His  spirit  knew  not  what 
it  was  to  falter,  when  facing  danger.  Perhajjs  we  must  add  — 
even  if  we  do  not  go  to  the  extent  of  the  Abbe  Faillon  —  that 
he  enjoyed  a  hunt  too  much  to  be  over-scrupulous  whether  the 
game  was  a  squirrel  or  an  Iroquois. 

T»vo  vessels  having  been  made  ready  at  Ilonflcur,  they  sailed 
on  !March  15,  1603,  in  command  of  Pontgrave,  who 
was  accom])anied  by  Champlain  in  the  "  Bonne  Baiin,  March, 
Keuommee,"  while  the  Sieur  Prevert  had  charge  of 
tlie  lesser  craft,  the  "  Franc^oise."  The  latter  was  to  stop  at 
Gaspc,  while  Pontgrave  went  on  to  Tadoussae.  The  little  fleet 
had  a  tedious  passage  of  forty  days.  After  landing,  they  found 
themselves  at  once  mingling  in  the  filthy  revelries  of  a  camp 


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23  WEST  MAIN  STREET 

WEBSTER,  N.Y.  MS80 

(716)  872-4503 


84 


ATTEMPTS  AT  COLONIZATION,  1600-1607. 


§ 


lip  .-■■■: 


I 


At  Tadous- 
aac. 


of  Indians,  who  were  celebrating  a  victory  over  the  Iroquois. 
Reeking  scalps  were  conspicuous  in  the  scene,  and  they  were 

the  first  reminders  of  savage  warfare  which  Champlain 

had  seen,  —  a  warfare  that  a  few  years  later  he  was 
to  turn  upon  himself,  and  which  was  to  become  a  heritage  for 
his  successors. 

But  these  horrors  did  not  long  divert  him  from  a  purpose 
which  he  was  so  strenuously  to  pursue  for  thirty  years.     On 

June  11,  he  started  to  explore  the  Saguenay.  It  is 
saguenay,*    uot  clcar  what  knowledge  of  this  forbidding  stream 

had  been  handed  down  to  him  from  earlier  adventurers. 
Cartier  had  passed  it  by,  and  it  is  not  quite  sure  how  far  its  ap- 
pearance in  one  of  AJlefonsce's  rude  charts  indicates  a  personal 
knowledge  of  it.  It  does  not  seem  certain  that  the  traders  who 
had  perhaps  been  up  and  down  the  main  river  of  late  years  had 
ever  tempted  the  gloomy  depths  of  the  Saguenay.  If  they  did, 
they  have  left  no  record  of  it.  Champlain  went  up  the  stream, 
perhaps  thirty  or  forty  miles,  but  not  far  enough  to  determine 
of  his  own  knowledge  its  geographical  relations. 

The  Indians  contrived  to  let  him  know  that  the  Saguenay 
flowed  out  of  a  large  lake,  — the  modern  St.  John,  —  and  that 
there  was  an  affluent  water-system  above  it.  It  would  take  a 
canoe  ten  days,  the  Indians  said,  to  make  the  trip  back  to 
Tadoussac  from  these  upper  waters.  There  were  tribes  about 
the  lake  who  had  told  these  informants  that  beyond  the  divide, 
still  farther  to  the  north,  lay  a  great  salt  sea.  Champlain 
grasped  the  idea  of  a  gulf  stretching  south  from  the  Arctic 
Ocean,  and  divined  the  bay  that  Hudson  was  yet  to  make  evi- 
dent, and  many  years  later  he  was  cruelly  deceived  in  an  attempt 
to  find  it  by  another  route. 

In  a  week's  time  Champlain  was  back  at  Tadoussac,  and  on 

June  18,  accompanied  by  Pontgrave,  he  started  up  the 
St.  Law-       St.  Lawrence  in  a  small  bark,  taking  with  him   a 

boat  for  use  in  shallow  waters.  On  the  23d,  he  ob- 
served the  cataract  which  drops  in  feathery  confusion  from  its 
upper  level,  and  gave  it  the  name  of  Montmorency,  which  is 
so  familiar  to  the  modern  tourist.  He  saw  the  lofty  promon- 
tory of  Quebec,  and  supposed,  as  he  went  on,  that  he  was  pass- 
ing beyond  the  goal  of  Cartier's  explorations.  At  Three 
Rivers  he  remarked,  as  Pontgravd  had,  how  fit  a  place  it  was 


>  f ;  i" 


CHAM  PLAIN  AT  MONTREAL. 


85 


Sorel  River. 


for  a  settlement.  On  the  29th,  he  was  skimming  the  variegated 
surface  of  a  broadened  expanse  of  the  river,  and  as  it  was 
St.  Peter's  day,  he  applied  that  enduring  name  to  the  lake. 
Here  he  was  for  a  while  arrested  at  the  mouth  of  a 
tributary  on  the  south  side,  where  he  found  an  encamp- 
ment of  Algonquins,  gathering  for  an  incursion  up  the  stream, 
into  the  country  of  their  enemies,  the  Iroquois.  In  attempting 
to  ascend  this  river,  the  rapids  of  Chambly  checked  his  prog- 
ress. He  learned  from  the  Indians  that  the  river  flowed  from 
a  large  lake,  and  that  there  was  a  smaller  sheet  still  beyond. 
From  these  southern  heads  of  the  water  a  portage  led  to 
another  river,  —  the  Hudson,  —  by  which  the  voyager  would  be 
carried  south  towards  what  Champlain  supposed  piust  be  the 
coast  of  Florida,  taking  that  name,  as  it  was  then  understood, 
as  covering  a  region  stretching  far  north  of  the  modern  penin- 
sula, until  it  reached  t^^  lerritory  claimed  by  the  French. 
Five  years  later,  Champlain  was  to  make  this  more  apparent, 
with  the  mysteries  of  the  distant  mountains,  which  he  saw 
bounding  the  distance  on  either  hand,  unsolved. 

Reaching  once  more  the  main  river,  these  venturesome  French 
still  breasted  the  current  and  made  a  way  among  the  devious 
channels  to  the  island  where  Montreal  now  stands, 
and  looked  upon  its  sentinel  mountain.  They  were 
stopped  at  the  Sault  St.  Louis,  —  the  Lachine  Rapids,  —  and 
Champlain  tried  in  vain  to  get  round  them  by  a  portage. 
Finding  that  he  was  at  the  end  of  his  course,  he  endeavored  to 
deduce  from  the  bewildering  statements  of  the  savages  some 
notion  of  what  lay  above  that  long  plunge  of  waters.  He  got 
in  this  way  a  tolerably  clear  conception  of  at  least  a  portion 
of  the  waters,  which  some  years  later  he  was  to  follow.  His 
dusky  informants  took  him  in  imagination  up  a  large  affluent 
of  the  St.  Lawrence,  coming  from  the  west,  and  they  told  him 
that  it  threaded  the  country  of  the  Algonquins,  as  later,  under 
the  name  of  the  Ottawa,  he  found  it  to  do.  Following  up  the 
St.  Lawrence  and  passing  rapids  and  expansions  of  the  stream, 
he  was  told  he  could  reach  a  large  body  of  water,  fed 
through  a  channel,  blocked  by  a  cataract,  which  flowed  western 
out  of  a  salubrious  lake.  A  river  flowed  into  this  lake 
at  its  farther  end,  through  which  the  boatman  stemming  the 
current  could  push  his  skiff  eventually  into  an  immense  sea  of 


At  Montreal. 


''a 


I 


\  ! 


!V! 


iH 


■:i 


>  ?      I        i    ;1 


m 


86 


ATTEMPTS  AT  COLONIZATION,  1600-1607. 


salt  water.  This  last  particular  the  Indians  were  frank  enough 
to  acknowledge  was  derived  from  the  reports  of  remoter  tribes, 
since  they  themselves  had  never  seen  this  ominous  sea. 

This  hydrography  is  not  difficult  to  follow.  The  fancy  of 
Champlain  was  led  in  the  description  along  the  waters  of 
Ontario,  which  he  was  yet  to  know  by  experience  ;  up  the 
Niagara,  whose  falls  he  never  saw,  and  whose  magnitude  he 
failed  to  comprehend  to  the  last ;  along  Lake  Erie,  of  which 
also  he  remained  through  life  in  much  ignorance ;  thence  by 
the  Detroit  River  to  Lake  Huron,  which  he  learned  later  to 
know  in  that  portion  of  it  called  the  Georgian  Bay.  His  subse- 
quent experience  (1615)  certainly  showed  him  that  it  was  not 
suit ;  but  in  his  present  uncertainty  he  could  but  think,  as  every 
Canadian  explorer  in  those  days  thought,  that  the  great  western 
Sea  of  Cathay  lay  almost  within  his  ken.  He  never  quite 
divested  himself  of  his  hope  to  see  it. 

Champlain  had  at  this  time,  as  above  intimated,  derived  from 
the  accounts  of  the  Indians  a  very  inadequate  notion  of  the 
torrent  which  plunges  at  Niagara.  He  speaks  of  it  as  having 
a  volume  not  large  enough  for  the  main  outflow  of  a  lake,  and 
was  therefore  forced  to  argue  that  the  waters  of  Lake  Erie 
flowed  for  the  most  part  in  another  direction,  perhaps  to  the 
south.  The  description  presented  to  him  by  the  Indians,  as 
recorded  in  his  Sauvages,  is  far  from  clear ;  but  it  seems  to 
indicate  that  Lake  Huron  delivered  the  great  body  of  its  water 
through  some  other  channel  than  Lake  Erie,  and  that  it  found 
its  way  thereby  into  the  St.  Lawrence.  There  is  an  early  maj), 
made  indeed  at  a  somewhat  later  day,  which  interprets  this 
belief  by  making  the  Ottawa  this  alternative  channel.  The 
geologist  will  observe  that  its  configuration  is  curiously  like 
what  is  now  known  to  have  been  the  water-shed  of  the  region 
after  the  melting  of  the  great  glacier.  Champlain  was  himself 
to  discover  that  this  course  of  the  Ottawa  was  far  from  being 
uninterrupted. 

With  such  vague  glimpses  of  the  unknown  west,  Champlain 
and  his  party  returned  to  Tadoussac,  not  without  hoping  that 
the  salt  water  reported  to  them  could  one  day  be  reached  on  the 
way  to  China. 

It  is  one  of  the  striking  features  in  the  accounts  which  we 
have  of  these  early  days  of  exploration  that  the  frequenting  of 


THE  LOWER  ST.  LAWRENCE 


87 


I 


;    if 


a  coast  for  traffic  or  fishing  counts  so  little  in  contributing  geo- 
graphical knowledge.  It  can  hardly  be  possible  that  no  more 
was  observed  by  such  mercantile  adventurers  than  was  put  on 
record ;  but  there  must  have  been  a  scant  degree  of  serviceable 
value  iii  what  they  did,  or  the  official  explorers  would  not  have 


I'! 


^  1 1 1 


sought  so  often  to  cover  the  same  fields.  The  shores  of  the 
Lower  St.  Lawrence  and  the  margins  of  the  gulf  had  been 
for  nearly  a  century  at  least  the  haunts  of  Normans,  Bretons, 
and  Biscay ans,  but  Champlain  felt  that  his  record  for  the 
king  would  not  be  what  it  ought  to  be  unless  his  official  eye 
could  survey  those  shores.  We  accordingly  find  him,  shortly 
after  his  return  to  Tadoussac,  making  ready  to  follow  the  sin- 


i  f  I 


^ '( 11 


» 


ii^ 


ihli 


[■  V 


i 


88 


ATTEMPTS  AT  COLONIZATION,   16W-1G07. 


Amyar  de 
C  hastes 
dies. 


uosities  of  these  lower  river   banks  towards   the  gulf.     It  is 

not  our  purpose  now  to  give  his  exi)ei*ienco  in  this 

Lawrence      work  in  detail.     He  has  set  them  down  in  his  SaU' 

explored. 

vages. 
Returning  to  the  mouth  of  the  Saguenay,  Champlnin  found 
the  ships  laden  with  the  furs  gathered  in  his  absence,  and  tlio 
expedition  was  ready  for  the  homeward  voyage.     They  had  em- 
barked  several  natives,  and  the  weary  voyagers  daily 
ase,  septem-  beguiled  themselves  with  Indian  grammar  and  vocab- 
ulary.    On  the  2d  of  September  (1G03),  the  stag- 
gering vessels  were  thumping  their  prows  against  head  seas  off 
Cape  Race,  and  on  the  20th  they  ran  into  the  basin  of  Havre 
de  Grace.     Here  it  was  soon  learned  that,  a  few 
months  before,  their  chief  patron,  Amyar  de  Chastos, 
had  died,  and  the  colonization  scheme  on  which  they 
had  returned  to  make  report  was  left  without  a  sponsor. 

Pending  a  new  movement,  Champlain  was  busy  in  preparing 
a  map  of  the  region,  as  best  he  could,  from  observation  and  the 
Indian  testimony,  and  in  putting  his  notes  in  shape 
makes  a  for  a  rcport  to  the  king.  Just  what  the  ma])  which  he 
made  was,  we  are  not  informed,  for  it  was  not  pub- 
lished with  his  report.  There  could  have  been  little  in  earlier 
cartography  to  help  him  beyond  the  description  of  Cartier.  It 
is  indeed  possible  that  he  might  have  known  the  maps  of  that 
navigator  and  of  Allefonsce.  Current  published  maps  gave 
nothing  but  varying  impressions  of  Cartier 's  results,  as  has 
been  shown  in  the  previous  chapter.  The  world  just  at  this 
time  was  getting  the  same  vague  sort  of  treatment  of  this  cai*- 
tographical  theme  in  such  publications  as  the  combination  J/c;"- 
cator  Atlas  of  1602,  or  in  such  special  chance  issues 
as  the  Relaciones  of  Botero,  only  just  published  at 
Valladolid.  There  was  much  in  all  this  that  would 
hardly  comport  with  Champlain's  newer  knowledge.  Rut  if 
the  map  fails  us,  we  have  the  text  of  Champlain's  report,  pub- 
DesSau-  lishcd  with  the  royal  sanction  vi&  Dc»  Sauvaijcs^  late 
vages,  1G04.    jj^  i6()4      j^  ^^g  ^^iQ  first  time  .  he   had  given  the 

world  the  chance  to  measure  his  powers  of  observation.  The 
narrative  was  devoted  to  the  country,  its  geography  and  phy 
sical  condition,  its  pi'oducts,  its  natives,  and  its  promises.  One 
must  determine  from  the  way  in  which  the  book   has  disap- 


Contem 

porary 

maps. 


PONTGRAVE  AND  CHAMPLAIN. 


89 


I 


j)eai'ed,  that  either  the  avidity  of  commercial  speculation  or  the 
thimibing  of  the  lovers  of  the  marvelous,  or  both,  has  almost 
deprived  posterity  of  the  record,  for  when  the  Abbe  Laverdiere 
sought  to  I'eprint  it  twenty  years  ago,  he  had  to  have  the  copy 
in  the  great  Paris  Library  —  the  only  one  then  known  to  him  — 
transcribed  for  the  printer.  Its  rarity  is  not  so  great  as  the 
abbe  imagined,  for  there  are  copies  in  more  than  one  American 
library,  and  a  comparison  of  the  copies  in  Harvard  College 
Library  and  the  Carter-Brown  Library  show  that  it  was  set  up 
twice  in  the  same  year,  indicating  unusual  currency. 

The  voyage  of  1603  had  brought  Champlain  and  Pontgrave 
into  cordial  relations,  which  were  never  relaxed.     The 

!•       1  ■««•   1       •  •  1        Pontgravd 

greater  age  of  that  Maloum  navigator  gave  to  the  andCham- 
friendly  feelings  of  Champlain  a  tinge  of  filial  obedi- 
ence. They  were  one  in  the  belief  that  the  great  river  of  Can- 
ada was  a  channel  that  must  be  followed  if  a  New  France  was 
to  arise.  Tadoussac  as  a  goal  was  not  to  their  mind.  Its  for- 
bidding sterility  gave  no  promise  for  colonization,  and  Cham- 
plain's  heart  was  set  on  dreams  of  colonization  that  he  was 
never  permitted  to  realize  to  their  full  extent. 

Columbus,  at  the  south,  had  accounted  for  the  low  grade  of 
peoples  which  he  found  by  supposing  that  he  was  on  the  out- 
skirts of  the  East,  among  coast  tribes  less  susceptible  to  the 
lures  of  civilization  than  interior  peoples.  He  argued  that  if 
he  would  find  the  wealth  and  luxury  which  Europeans  dreamed 
of,  he  must  get  at  the  inland  races.  We  know  that  the  Geno- 
ese on  his  last  voyage  was  bending  all  his  energies  to  seek  a 
})assage  through  the  barriers  which  he  had  found.  A  hundred 
years  later,  Champlain  reasoned  in  the  same  strain  at  the  north. 
He  felt  that  it  was  a  divei'gence  from  the  true  field  of  discov- 
ery, when  it  was  apparent  that  the  next  expedition  was  to  pro- 
mote an  examination  of  the  Atlantic  coast. 

When  Chauvin  had  overruled  Pontgrave's  preference,  and  had 
forced  the  expedition  of  1603  to  remain  at  Tadoussac,  he  had 
subjected  the  company  to  a  test  of  that  region's  climate  which 
compelled  the  successor  of  De  Chastes  to  make  trial  of  a  more 
salubrious  climate. 

It  is  not  necessary  to  follow  with  much  detail  this  next  west- 
ern venture  of  the  French,  but  there  are  some  of  its  move- 
ments along  the  coast  of  Nova  Scotia  and  New  England  which 


Ml 

Mi  i 


« 

m 

■ 

:  1 

1 

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1 

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i 

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1 

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1 

.:fl    :  ^i' 

1 

90 


ATTEMPTS  AT  COLONIZATION,  1600-1007. 


1'  .  P 


Sleur  de 

Monts, 

1C03. 


have  some  bearing  on  the  views  which  Champlain  grew  to  have 
of  the  intermediate  region,  bordering  on  the  great  valley  of  the 
north. 

Henry  IV.  picked  out  the  Sieur  de  Monts  for  a  successor  of 
De  Chastes.  As  this  new  lieutenant  was  a  Protestant,  born  in 
Champlain's  own  province  of  Saintonge,  the  king  had 
a  struggle  to  secure  the  cooperation  of  parliament. 
The  stubborn  monarch  carried  his  point,  and  signed 
De  Monts's  commission  at  Fontainebleau,  November  8,  1603, 
creating  him  lieutenant-general  of  Canada.  The  new  leader 
was  directed  to  preserve  in  tliat  country  the  religious  rights  of 
both  Calvinist  and  Catholic.  He  was  to  exercise  jurisdiction 
over  both  banks  of  the  river  of  Canada  and  as  far  south  as  the 
fortieth  degree  of  latitude.  Within  this  range  he  was  to  have 
unchecked  license  to  trade  for  furs,  and  to  that  end,  in  April, 
1604,  he  proclaimed  his  privileges  throughout  all  the  seaports 
of  France. 

While  the  residt  of  the  royal  struggle  with  parliament  was 
doubtful,  De  Monts  was  in  Rouen,  organizing  a  com- 
mercial company  among  its  citizens,  which  was  to 
include  also  those  of  Kochelle  and  Saint-Jean-de-Luz. 
The  papers  of  this  association  were  signed,  February  10,  1604. 
De  Monts  was  joined  in  Koucn  by  Pontgrave,  and  at  Havre 
de  Grace  the  two  found  four  vessels  already  laden  for  the 
voyage.  Pontgrave  stowed  away  as  best  he  could  six  score 
of  artisans  in  the  little  ship  of  one  hundred  and  twenty  tons, 
which  he  himself  commanded.  De  Monts  took  charge  of  a 
second  ship,  and  with  him  were  the  Sieur  de  Poutrincourt, 
whose  name  is  associated  with  Acadian  exploration, 
and  Champlain,  who  was  thus  diverted  for  a  while 
from  the  great  river  of  Canada.  The  little  fleet  left 
port  early  in  April,  1604. 

While  on  this  expedition,  Cham))lain  passed  along  the  Maine 
coast,  and  gathered  from  the  Indian  descriptions  that  there 
was  a  waterway  along  the  line  of  the  river  of  Norum- 
bega  (Penobscot),  which  was  a  practical  route  for 
canoes  —  if  not  for  larger  craft  —  between  the  Atlantic  and  the 
St.  Lawrence.  He  understood,  according  to  the  popular  notion 
of  the  physical  possibility,  that  the  divergent  streams  which 
afforded  the   passage  took  their  rise  in  a  large  lake  midway 


Commercial 
company, 
February  10, 
1C04. 


De  Monts 
aiul  Cham- 
plain  sail, 
1G04. 


Norumbega 
River. 


THE  NEW  ENGLAND  COAST. 


91 


between  the  ocean  and  the  great  river,  and  flowed  north  and 
south.  He  rehearsed  such  views  in  his  edition  of  1613,  while 
in  the  same  book  he  indicates  that  to  make  the  passage  north- 
ward by  the  line  of  the  Kennebec  requires  a  portage  of  two 
leagues,  to  reach  the  Chaudiere.  It  was  by  this  route,  it  will 
be  remembered,  that  Amherst  in  1759  endeavored  to  commimi- 
cate  with  Wolfe,  and  Benedict  Arnold  in  the  autumn  of  1775 
proceeded  to  attack  Quebec. 

Champlain,  following  the  coast,  reached  a  little  later  what  is 
now  known  as  Boston  harbor.  Here  he  perceived  a  gogton 
flow  of  water  from  the  west.  Whether  it  was  the  tide  '""^'«"■• 
which  glides  by  the  present  Point  AUerton,  or  the  current  which 
sweeps  around  the  northerly  end  of  the  Boston  peninsula, 
matters  little.  He  gave  to  this  river  the  family  name  of  De 
Monts,  and  accordingly  on  his  and  on  other  French  maps  the 
stream  bears  the  name  of  Riviere  du  Guast,  —  a  name  which 
did  not  entirely  disappear  from  the  Dutch  and  other  contem- 
porary maps  till  after  Boston  was  founded  in  1630. 

"  This  river  extends,"  says  Champlain,  "  toward  the  land  of 
the  Iroquois,  a  nation  which  is  the  constant  foe  of  the  Montagnais, 
who  live  on  the  St.  Lawrence."  One  judges  from  this  that  the 
river  of  which  the  Indians  had  told  him  at  the  Chambly  rapids, 
and  which  he  thought  ran  towards  Florida,  —  in  fact  a  premo- 
nition of  the  Hudson,  —  was  now  identified  in  his  thought  with 
what  we  in  this  day  know  as  the  Charles,  a  meandering  coast 
stream,  which  empties  into  Boston  harbor. 

For  over  three  years,  Champlain  was  in  various  parts  of  this 
Atlantic  coast,  and  it  was  he  who  took  the  first  steps  towards 
an  intelligible  cartography  of  the  shore  line  of  Nova  Scotia  and 
New  England.  The  St.  Lawrence  was  not  meanwhile  wholly 
neglected.  Pontgrave,  who  was  scouring  it  in  1606  to  arrest 
intruders,  seized  a  vessel  which  De  Monts  and  others  had  sent 
there  for  trade,  —  an  action  which  compelled  a  resort  to  a  legal 
settlement  in  France.  But  a  greater  shock  was  in  store  for 
De  Monts.  His  commission  had  been  revoked  some  Ti.eexpedi- 
time  before,  and  when  Champlain  heard  of  it,  the  October""'"' 
news  was  accompanied  by  a  recall  of  the  expedition,  ^'*'" 
and  in  October,  1607,  all  were  back  in  St.  Malo. 

There  is  no  evidence  that  the  French  were  aware  at  the  time 
of  the  Virginia  movement,  which  had  followed  the  peace  which 


•M 


III 


i  11  ii 


:M| 


1:1 


Hi 


*5- 


i 


bfl 


I    ,1 


92 


ATTEMPTS  AT  COLONIZATION,  1600-1007. 


Imd  been  made  between  England  and  Spain  in  1G05.  Whilo 
Chauiplain  had  been  searching  the  inlets  of  the  New  England 
coast,  Captain  John  Smith  was  exploring  the  waters  of  the 
Chesapeake  to  find  a  passage  to  the  western  sea,  as  Ca])tain 
Newport  did  a  little  later,  and  for  near  a  century  there  were 
those  among  the  English  who  were  not  prepared  to  believe  that 
Virginia  was  other  than  an  island,  which  might  aft'ord  a  way 
along  its  seaboard  to  this  occidental  goal.  The  year  before 
Champlain  left  the  more  northern  waters,  the  English  king  had 
granted  (1606)  to  the  London  and  Plymouth  companies  a 
stretch  of  territory  along  the  coast  from  34°  in  the  south  to  45° 
in  the  north,  which  was  sure  before  long  to  raise  a  question  of 
jurisdiction  between  these  rival  nations,  and  actually  did  bring 
them  in  conflict  at  Mt.  Desert  the  same  season  in  which  Cham- 
plain  left  the  coast. 


il 


CHAPTER  V. 

COLONIZATION  ESTABLISHED  AT  QUEBEC. 
1608-1613. 

The  year  1608  opened  with  a  transient  change  of  fortune 
for  De  Mont».  He  had  listened  to  Champlain's  recital  of  his 
three  years'  experience  with  a  renewed  zest  for  exploration,  and 
he  was  prepared  to  abandon  the  coast  for  the  St.  Lawrence. 
Under  the  same  narrative,  and  by  reason  of  persuasions  that 
profit  and  glory  could  yet  be  found,  the  king  so  far  relented 
that  on  January  7  he  signed  a  patent  allowing  De  peMont.'* 
Monts  a  renewal  of  his  fur-trade  monopoly  for  a  sin-  Sewed/jan- 
gle  year.  He  coupled  a  condition  with  it,  very  likely  ""'^  ^'  ^'^^' 
at  the  instigation  of  Champlain,  that  an  attempt  should  be  again 
made  to  penetrate  farther  into  the  interior  of  the  continent. 
The  salt  western  sea  of  Champlain's  first  report  had  not  been 
forgotten,  and  there  were  hopes,  if  it  could  be  reached,  of  its 
affording  the  coveted  way  to  India.  De  Monts  was  not  without 
hopes  of  an  extension  of  his  trading  privilege  at  the  end  of  the 
year. 

Buoyed  by  this  anticipation,  and  animated  by  the  enthusiasm 
which  projects  of  hazard  often  contribute,  De  Monts  fitted  out 
two  ships.  To  Pontgrave  was  assigned  the  command  of  the 
trading  part  of  the  expedition,  with  orders  to  return  at  the 
expiration  of  the  season.  To  Champlain,  who  was  now  created 
lieutenant-governor,  was  given  the  task  of  holding  the  country 
permanently,  and  developing  its  geography.  This  meant  that 
an  opportunity  should  be  taken  to  put  to  the  test  what  he  had 
already  explained  to  the  king  in  his  Smivages,  namely,  "the 
practicability  of  finding  a  way  to  China,  avoiding  at 
the  same  time  the  cold  of  the  north  and  the  heat  of  to  seek  a  way 
the  south,"  and  he  believed  this  route  lay  through  the 
St.  Lawrence. 


n  -i 


% 

4 


:« 


'111 


? 


94 


cor.nsiZATios  estahlisukd  at  Quebec. 


w 


f  '  li 


t'  '•. 


V 


h. 


QiikIioo 

foiilitlcti, 

10U8. 


On  tho  Sth  of  April,  lOOH,  Pontgmvi'  sailed  from  Ilonfieiir  in 

tho  *'  Lovrier,"  and  a  week  later  Chaniulain  embarked. 

(ioiiMiu,      it  is  Hupnosed,  in  tho  "Don  de  Dieu,"  then  nnder  tho 

April,  IU«.  1      /.  1 1  • /^i       Ml        1 

command  of  Henri  Cyouillard,  anohl  ausoeuito  of  lN)nt« 
grav(5  and  Chauvin.  On  Juno  3,  Champlain  reached  Tadous- 
Jimi.,  nt  Trt-  **'"''  ""'^  ^v*^**  *'*■  o"*'^'  trailed  upon  to  settle  a  dispute 
iioiiuiu'.  which  had  already  been  begun  between  Pontgrave 
and  a  Hastiuo  fisherman.  A  little  blood  had  been  drawn,  and 
as  it  wouhl  not  do  to  risk  tho  main  enterprise  by  delays,  tho 
governor-general  composed  tho  quarrel  temporarily,  and  left 
tho  ultimate  decision  to  the  authorities  at  home.  This  contest 
arranged,  Champlain  net  to  work  building  a  small  shallop  of 
about  fourteen  tons,  and  it  was  not  long  before  ho  was  on  his 
way  up  tho  St.  Lawrence.  The  bold  hcadlaiul  of 
Quebec  had  attracted  his  attention  in  1003,  and  ho 
now  determined  to  lay  tho  fouudations  of  a  town  be- 
neath its  clift's,  and  very  soon  the  level  strand  along  tho  river 
presented  a  busy  scene. 

Champlain  had  not  completed  the  laying  out  of  his  garden, 
when  ho  was  startled  at  a  disclosure  from  one  of  his  men.  A 
meehanio  anu>ng  his  foHowors,  thinking  to  gain  the  sympathy 
of  the  Basques  at  Tadoussac  and  some  consequent  advan- 
tage, j)lotted  with  some  accomj)liees  to  murder  Chami)lain  and 
offer  tho  new  settlement  as  a  lure  to  tho  rivals  down  tho  river, 
riot  to  kill  Such  a  secret,  requiring  passive  complicity  in  many 
cimuipiuiii.  others,  being  hard  to  keep,  was  opportunely  betrayed. 
Champlain,  while  his  knowledge  of  the  plot  was  not  suspected, 
enticed  tho  ringleaders  on  board  a  bark  lying  in  the  stream, 
where  they  were  easily  overpowered.  The  body  of  the  princi- 
pal plotter  soon  dangled  from  a  tree,  and  three  of  the  other 
chief  conspirators  were  ])ut  in  irons. 

Champlain  now  explored  the  little  tributary  of  the  St.  Law- 
rence, which  causes  tho  promontory  of  Quebec  to  jut  out  like 
a  capo.  On  this  stream  he  came  upon  traces  of  the  fort  which 
Cartier  had  built,  and  in  his  journal  he  enters  into  an  argu- 
ment to  prove  the  identification,  which  at  that  time  was  at 
variance  with  the  common  opinion  that  the  St.  Croix  River  of 
Cartier  was  higher  up  the  St.  Lawrence. 

Pontgrave  having  completed  the  lading  of  his  ships,  Cham- 
plain placed  under  that  commander's  charge  the  three  accom- 


VIlAMrL.MN  AND   THE  lliOQirOlS. 


06 


i)lice»  of  tho  recent  plot,  who  were  «lestin«Ml  to  expiuto    their 
Clime  in  tho  guUeyf*.     On  Sopten»lM>r  18,  Pontgruvc  ^.,„.„,iH,r 
siiiUitl  for  France.     Tho  littlo  colony  wiim  left  to  pro-   '"•  """ 
pure  for  winter  and  its  hard  oxjHjrionees. 

There  waa  a  long  and  harrowing  wait  till  spring  opened  r.nd 
the  ice-floes  began  to  jostle  in  tho  rivor.  All  in  natnro  was 
more  blooming  than  tho  spirits  of  tho  imprisoned  eol-  .  .^ 
onists,  when  on  June  15,  1001),  Champlaui  learned 
that  a  week  before,  Pontgrav<5  had  rotxirned  to  Tadoussac.  Two 
(lays  later,  the  governor  started  d«nvn  tho  river  to  confer  with 
this  bringer  of  succor.  It  was  a  sad  story  which  Champlain 
luul  to  tell  his  friend.  Oidy  eight  of  the  twenty-eight  whom 
rontgrave  had  left  behind  a  year  ago  wei*o  living,  and  half  of 
these  wero  broken  down.  The  winter's  horrors  wei-o  too  sick- 
ening to  <lwell  ui)on,  for,  to  increase  the  miseries  of  tho  French, 
the  famished  savages  had  hung  about  tho  settlement  all  tho 
interval. 

With  tho  store  of  provisions  which  Pontgrav<^  had  brought, 
and  with  fresh  men  to  take  ui)  the  toil,  the  littlo  com- 
munity  began  to  improve  m  the  sununer  air.     otories  brings  suc- 
had  reached  the  govei-nor,  during  the  winter,  of  the 
extent  and  beauty  of  that  lake  which  lay  towanls  the  coinitry 
of  the  Iroquois,  and  something  in  the  natnro  of  a  pact  was  ap- 
parently made  with  the  Montagnais,  who  inhabited  the  country 
about  Quebec.     It  was  agreed  that  if  thi»so  warriors  would  con- 
duct Champlain  on  an  exploration  in  that  diraction,  he  would 
fight  in  their  defense  if  any  of  their  enemies  were  encountered. 

On  June  18,  1G09,  Champlain  aseendeil  the  St.  Lawrence 
with  a  party  of  French  and  savages,  and  found  two  chmnpiain 
or  three  hundred  Ilurons  and  Algcmcpiiu^  encamped  {hJiro^"K*3, 
not  far  from  the  river  that  led  to  this  southern  lake.  ''"'"^'  "''*""'• 
These  Indians  wero  preparing  to  proceed  with  the  Montagnais 
on  a  wai'-path  towards  the  Iroquois.  It  was  a  bodeful  meeting. 
The  Indian  chief,  at  a  council  which  was  held,  gave  Champlain 
to  understand  that  he  must  needs  cement  the  alliance  which 
their  friendly  intercourse  in  1G03,  and  his  recent  promises  to 
the  Montagnais,  had  foreshadowed.  Ho  did  not  hesitate  to  do 
so  by  agreeing  to  join  in  their  enterprise. 

There  is  nothing  in  Champlain's  career  which  has  exposed 
him  to  so  much  censure  as  this  prompt  desertion  of  the  part  of 


i 

iH  % 


v. 
i'. 


1  \ 


^ 


96 


COLONIZATION  ESTABLISHED  AT  QUEBEC. 


\    "I 


'J' ' 


a  niefliator  and  pacificator  among  the  peoples  with  whom  he  had 
deliberately  cast  his  lot.  Such  censors  are  the  Abbes  Faillon 
and  Ferland.  His  defenders  point  to  the  necessity  of  his  mak- 
ing a  promise  to  those  whom  he  needed  for  allies,  and  allege 
that  none  but  a  dastard  could  have  shunned  abiding  by  it. 
By  thus  ingratiating  himself  with  his  savage  neighbors,  he 
could  make  sure  of  their  protection,  and  so  advance  his  purpose 
of  western  discovery,  and  make  it  easier  for  the  KecoUect  and 
Jesuit  to  venture  among  distant  villages.  Thus  much  he  indeed 
gained ;  but  he  rendered  the  western  path  unceasingly  hazard- 
ous, in  acquiring  the  enmity  of  the  ablest  and  most  redoubtable 
warriors  of  the  Indian  race.  For  over  a  century,  the  Iroquois 
found  no  pastime  equal  to  rendering  life  in  Canada  miserable. 
They  kept  in  perpetual  anxiety  every  settler  along  the  great 
valley  who  dared  to  occupy  a  farmstead  away  from  the  palisaded 
settlements.  The  shrieks  of  murdered  children,  the  moans  of 
tortured  parents,  and  devastation  of  households,  mark  the 
course  of  French-Canadian  history  as  long  as  the  Iroquois  main- 
tained an  aggressive  confederacy.  Thus  it  was  that  in  making 
enemies  of  these  affiliated  tribes,  Champlain  exposed  the  long 
valley  of  the  St.  Lawrence  to  constant  inroads  on  its  southern 
flanks,  and  no  preparation  for  many  years  that  the  French 
could  make  was  able  to  check  these  disasters.  Champlain  could 
hardly  indeed  have  anticipated  the  century  and  more  of  border 
warfare  which  »/as  to  follow  upon  the  strengthening  of  these 
savage  southern  hordes  by  an  alliance  with  the  Dutch  and 
English. 

We  need  not  dwell  on  the  actual  conflict  of  1609,  which 
opened  this  interminable  warfare.  Champlain  and  his  savage 
allies  sped  up  the  river  and  along  the  lake,  and  at  a  point 
Fight  at  identified  as  the  modern  Ticonderoga  they  met  in  the 
Ticouderoga.  ^ight  a  War  party  of  the  Iroquois.  Waiting  till  day- 
light, they  began  the  battle.  Champlain  describes  the  fight,  and 
shows  how  the  apparition  of  the  Frenchmen,  with  their  arque- 
buses, leveling  their  enemies  with  unseen  bolts  amid  deadly 
noises,  struck  terror  into  the  ranks  of  the  adversary  and  secured 
an  easy  victory  for  the  invaders.  Colden's  later  narrative  may 
in  a  certain  sense  be  supposed  to  present  the  traditional  account 
of  the  Iroquois.  It  confirms  the  powerful  agency  which  the  sud- 
den display  of  the  Christians'  marvelous  weapons  had  in  deciding 
the  issue  of  the  fight. 


FIGHT  NEAR    TICONDEROGA. 


97 


CHAMPLAIN'S    FIGHT   NEAR    TICONDEROGA. 

[From  Oinniplaln,  ed.  of  1G13.]  Kev  :  A  (wanting),  the  fort.  B,  enemy.  T,  oak  bark  canoes 
of  tlie  enemy,  holding  ten,  fifteen,  or  eigliteen  men  each.  D,  two  chiefs  wlio  were  killed.  E, 
nn  enemy  woinided  by  Chaniplain's  innsket.  F  (wanting),  Champlain.  G  (wanting),  two 
musketeers.  H,  canoes  of  the  allies,  Montagnaia,  Ochastaiguins,  and  Algonquins,  who  are  above. 
1  (also  on  the),  birch-bark  canoes  of  the  allies.    K  (wanting),  woods. 


i      ! 


■r:i 


!« 


k' 


Ml* 
i  1  'I 


:ni;r 


,  i- 

'  I  ft  I 


, 


;<  ft 


i' 


98 


COLONIZATION  ESTABLISHED  AT  QUEBEC. 


J  ^ 


f 


.< 


P^ 


The  combat  took  place  on  July  30,  1609,  on  the  shore  where 
each  party  had  landed  from  their  canoes,  and  the 
"^  '  '  curious  reader  may  see  how  the  governor  depicts  him- 
self in  armor  and  plumed  helmet,  firing  his  arquebus,  if  he  will 
look  at  the  drawing  that  Champlain  set  before  his  countrymen 
in  the  narrative  printed  for  their  edification.  To  his  royal 
master  this  expedition  had  given  a  title  to  a  fair  lake  and  its 
water  shed ;  but  while  its  commander  was  leading  it,  he  little 
suspected  how,  not  many  weeks  from  the  samo  time,  Henry 
Hudson,  in  a  search  for  a  western  passage,  ascended  from  the 
Dutch  and  occau,  by  the  river  which  now  bears  his  name,  to  the 
Iroquois.  country  of  the  Mohawks,  establishing  claims  which  for 
fifty  years  the  Dutch  held  against  both  French  and  English. 
Thus  was  prepared  the  way  for  that  later  league  of  the  Iroquois 
and  the  Dutch,  by  which  the  savages  acquired  the  European 
weapon.  Champlain's  successors  were  to  discover  to  their  cost 
what  this  league  and  that  with  the  later  English  meant,  when 
the  lake  to  which  we  still  apply  its  discoverer's  name  was  often 
alive  with  the  bustle  of  war. 

Returned  to  Quebec,  Champlain  prepared  to  depart  for 
France,  leaving  Pierre  Chauvin  in  charge  ;  and  on 
October  13,  1609,  he  landed  at  Honfleur.  Though 
De  Monts's  privileges  had  expired,  the  governor  found 
him  by  no  means  discouraged,  and  quite  ready  for  another 
venture. 

The  public  had  no  occasion  to  forget  these  recent  experiences. 
The  lively  Lescarbot,  a  lawyer  of  Paris  and  a  society  wit,  had, 
a  few  years  before,  joined  the  colonists  of  Acadia.  He  had  not 
been  unobservant  of  Champlain's  career  in  the  new 
world,  and  was  now  prepared  to  give  his  La  Nouvelle 
France  to  the  reading  public.  In  it  he  aimed  to  re- 
count what  the  French  had  so  far  done  in  securing  a  foothold 
for  the  king  in  these  northern  regions.  The  publication  did 
not  escape  the  notice  of  Hakluyt  in  London.  This  English 
chronicler  was  anxious  to  make  it  clear  that  his  countrymen 
were  quite  ready  to  launch  their  barges  beyond  the  divide  at 
the  head  of  the  James  River,  and  lead  the  way  to  Asia.  Ho 
also  would  show  that  they  possessed  in  Virginia  a  region  of 
far  greater  attractiveness  for  the  emigrant.  His  way  to  make 
this  evident  was  to  familiarize  the  English  public  with  what  the 


Champlain 
in  France, 
October, 
1G09. 


Lescarbot 

and 

Haliluyt. 


ICl 

J    .) 

up 

savs 

I 

his 


THE  IROQUOIS  ATTACKED. 


99 


French  had  suffered  in  the  north ;  and  with  this  end  in  view  a 
portion  of  Lescarbot's  book  was  translated  and  published  in 
London. 

Lescarbot  did  not  leave  his  readers  uncertain  of  those  upon 
whom  credit  should  be  bestowed  for  what  the  French  had 
already  done.  "  Let  us  say,"  he  admits,  "  that  France  owes 
these  discoveries  to  the  Sieur  de  Monts,  at  whose  expense  they 
have  been  made ;  and  she  is  likewise  indebted  to  the  courage  of 
Champlain  in  exposing  his  life  in  these  explorations,  and  in 
bearing  some  part  of  the  charge.  Champlain  promises  never 
to  cease  his  efforts  until  he  has  found  either  a  western  sea  or  a 
northern  sea,  opening  the  route  to  China,  which  so  many  have 
thus  far  sought  in  vain."  As  to  the  western  sea,  Lescarbot 
adds :  "  I  believe  it  beyond  the  remoter  parts  of  that  very 
great  lake,  which  we  hear  of."  He  further  expressed  the  ever- 
constant  opinion  of  a  school  of  contemporary  geographers,  that 
the  great  river  of  Canada  issued  from  a  lake  which  also  poured 
its  waters  by  another  channel  to  the  South  Sea.  He  recalled 
how  in  Europe  and  Africa  such  a  diverging  flow  was  not  un- 
known, instancing  the  lake  at  the  source  of  the  Nile,  as  such  an 
example. 

With  such  prestige  as  Champlain  had  acquired,  increased 
possibly  by  Lescarbot's  account  of  him,  it  was  not  surprising 
that  he  was  again  selected  to  take  recruits   to  the  voyage  of 
colony.     Pontgrave  went  with  him,  and  their  two  ves-  ^^^^' 
sels,  after  some  misfortunes  in  working  off  the  coast,  —  for  the 
spring  was  a  boisterous  one,  —  finally  reached  Tadoussac  on 
April  26,  1610.     Champlain  had  laid  out  plans  for  new  explo- 
rations, for  the  secrets  of  the  Saguenay  and  the  Ottawa  were 
still  undivulged.     He  found,  however,  the  Indians  too  intent 
on  their  yearly  invasion  of  the  Iroquois  country  to  be  diverted 
from  it,  and  without  their  aid  exploration  was  not  to  be  thought 
of.     He  joined  their  camp  near   the   mouth  of   the  Attacks  the 
^'ichelieu  River,  and  led  them  to  an   attack  on   an  i'^o^"o'»- 
J  oquois  barricade,  which  had  been  hastily  constructed,  not  far 
up  the  river.     The  attack  was  so  successful  that  not  a  hostile 
savage  escaped. 

It  was  after  this  June  onset,  and  while  he  was  encamped  with 
his  allies  on  an  island  in  Lake  St.  Peter,  that  he  and  they  made 


;ii: 


i^l 


id 


<i  -'"1    I'-      >. 


'i:li 


1% 


100       COLONIZATION  ESTABLISHED  AT  QUEBEC. 

a  mutual  exchange  of  hostages,  in  giving  and  taking  a  young 
man  on  each  side.  Champlain  received  the  savage  Savignon, 
Hoatoges  whom  he  later  took  to  France,  and  he  gave  them  a 
exchanged,  youug  Frenchman,  —  there  is  reason  to  believe  he  is 
the  same  who  later  became  known  as  Etienne  Brule.  Both  of 
these  hostages,  after  a  mutual  restitution  was  made  the  next 
year,  became  of  manifest  value  to  Champlain  in  his  later  inter- 
course with  the  savages,  for  this  interchange  of  interpreters 
enabled  him  to  reach  better  conclusions  as  .to  the  great  lakes  of 
the  west,  and  as  to  the  passages  towards  Florida  on  the  south. 
When  Champlain  parted  with  his  savage  friends,  two  other 
Frenchmeri  voluntarily  accompanied  them,  and  one  of  them, 
Nicolas  de  Vignau,  who  went  off  with  the  Algonquins,  we  shall 


encounter  agam. 


A  few  weeks  later,  a  ship  brought  news  of  the  assassination 
of  Henry  IV.  The  death  of  the  king  was  a  calamity 
returns  to  to  the  colouy.  Haviug  invested  the  Sieur  du  Pare 
Aug.-sept.  with  tlie  command,  and  leaving  sixteen  men  to  hold 
the  post,  Champlain,  with  some  feelings  of  uncertainty 
as  to  the  effect  in  France  of  a  change  in  the  monarch,  sailed 
from  Tadoussac  on  August  13,  and  reached  Honfleur  on  Sep- 
tember 27. 

It  was  now,  while  in  France,  that  Champlain  agreed  with 

Nicolas  BouUe  upon  a  dower  of  4500  livres,  to  be  paid 

receives        by  Boullc  to  him,  iu  anticipation  of  Champlain's  mar- 

(lower  for 

an  intended  riagc  with  BouUc's  daughter,  then  a  child.  It  was 
marriage.  ^^^  years  later  that  he  married  her.  Meanwhile,  the 
dower  was  such  an  addition  to  his  pecuniary  resources  that  he 
now  manifested  increased  devotion  to  the  commercial  side  of 


Vovage  of 
ICl'l. 


the  colony,  for  it  had  not  before  interested  him  much. 
His  next  voyage  to  the  St.  Lawrence,  in  IGll,  was 
almost  wholly  in  the  interests  of  the  fur  trade.  He  went  up 
the  river  to  the  rapids,  and  selected  a  position  for  a  trading- 
post  near  the  site  of  the  later  Montreal.  He  met  here  his 
Indian  allies,  and  the  hostages  on  both  sides  were  mutually 
restored.  He  listened  to  new  stories  of  distant  western  lakes, 
and  got  reports  from  other  savages  who  had  followed  up  the 
trail  towards  Florida. 

His  barter  for  furs  made  him  more  familiar  with  the  traders. 


A    VICEROYALTY  ESTABLISHED. 


101 


Ifl' 


He  found  their  pursuits  a  competition  which  diminished  their 
own  profits,  and  hampered  his  efforts  for  discovery.     Referring 
to  these  traders,  he  says :  "  All  they  want  is  that  the  explorers 
sliould  face  danger  in  discovering  new  peoples  and  new  land.,  for 
their  trade,  while  they  may  find  profit  where  the  others  found 
hardship."     It  was  evident  that  the  trade  in  peltries,  if  to  be 
worth  pursuing,  must  be  put   on   a  different  basis.      On  his 
return  to  France  in  September,  1611,  he  undertook  a  trading 
the  organizing  of  the  Canadian  experiment  on  a  better  forXd'/ 
commercial  basis,  and  with  this  task  he  was  occupied  ^•'^^-*'^- 
for  the  greater  part  of  the  following  year. 

The  whole  trading  interests  of  the  Norman  towns  during  the 
early  years  of  the  fur  trade  in  Canada  were  much  complicated 
by  rivalries  and  jealousies.  The  study  of  the  subject  involves 
pretty  closely  the  consideration  of  such  books  as  the  Glanes  and 
Noxivellcs  Glanes  histonques  Normandes  of  E.  H.  Gosselin. 

Champlain's  plans  at  this  time  provoked  opposition  from  the 
merchants  of  St.  Malo  and  Rouen.  He  had  undertaken  in  a 
measure  to  diminish  the  advantages  of  individual  enterprise  by 
compelling  all  who  joined  in  the  new  undertaking  to  share 
in  proportion  to  their  contribution  of  capital.  But  aspects 
other  than  commercial  were  daily  emphasized  in  public.  The 
Mevcurc  Franqois  had  been  established,  and  began  its  work  in 
rendering  popular  the  labors  of  the  priests.  In  the  introduc- 
tion, which  prepared  the  way,  its  editor  had  gone  over  the 
results  of  the  expeditions  of  De  Monts,  Pontgrave,  and  Cham- 
plain  (1604-1608),  rendering  them  better  known.  A  new  edi- 
tion of  Lescarbot,  and  still  another  issue  of  the  same  current 
book,  before  Champlain  was  ready  for  sea,  testified  to  exp[ora-'" 
the  growing  interest.  But  the  newer  knowledge  had  *'""■ 
little  effect  on  prevailing  views  of  the  geography  of  the  region, 
and  the  contempoi'a^y  edition  of  Wytfliet's  atlas  showed  no  im- 
provement upon  the  notions  which  had  been  developed  out  of 
the  narratives  of  Cartier. 


'I     ]\ 


111 


m 

Mil 


!    « 

1  ii 


I    I 


m 


The  disti'aetions  which  had  followed  upon  the  death  of  the 
king  had  begun  to  subside.  Champlain  found  that  a  renewal 
of  political  quiet  conduced  to  draw  more  attention  to  his  plans, 
despite  the  opposition  that  their  first  promulgation  had  raised. 
One  feature  that  he  insisted  upon  was  to  give  dignity  to  the 


!H 


!.' 


102       COLONIZATION  ESTABLISHED  AT  QUEBEC. 


;iv:>; 


gtogi 


whit 
("hail 
brouj 
the  i 


o 


CHAMPLAIN'S  MAPS. 


103 


vioeroy, 
lOl'J. 


Prince  de 

Coiide 

succeeds. 


enterprise  by  putting  it  under  a  viceroy  of  enlarged  powers,  and 

on  October  8  the  Count  de   Soissons  was  appointed  ^^^^^^  j^ 

to  that  position.     He  commissioned  Chaniplain  as  his 

deputy,  a  few  days  later.     With  a  newly  awakened 

zeal  Soissons  set  about  the  task  of  familiarizing  himself  with 

the  project.     Champlain  had  hardly  begun  to  show 

and  explain  his  maps  when  the  viceroy  suddenly  died. 

The  Prince  de  Conde  was  soon  selected  to  succeed  as  viceroy, 
and  more  authority  was  assigned  to  him  than  had  been 
before  given  to  any  royal  representative  in  the  Cana- 
dian region.  There  was  liitle  in  respect  to  civil,  mili- 
tary, and  religious  administration  that  his  instructions  did  not 
]iernut  him  to  undertake.  Ilis  letters-patent  were  signed  at 
Paris,  November  13,  1G12,  and  they  were  registered  at  November 
Kouon,  a  few  months  later.  Under  these  instructions  ^^'  *^*-" 
the  viceroy  was  commanded  to  prevent  the  selling  of  Euro- 
l)ean  weapons  to  the  natives,  and  he  was  expected  to  do  his 
utmost  to  find  and  open  a  way  to  China.  He  was  enjoined 
also  to  discover  the  mineral  resources  of  the  country. 

As  a  compensation  for  the  considerable  outlay  which  he 
might  be  called  upon  to  make  in  furthering  the  equipment  and 
business  of  the  new  expedition,  the  prince  was  to  be  allowed  a 
twelve  years'  lease  of  the  trade  and  mines  of  the  country,  with 
ample  powers  to  manage  it  by  deputy  and  to  prevent  intruders. 
A  new  commission  was  issued  to  Champlain  on  November  22. 

Of  the  maps  which  Champlain  showed  to  the  viceroy,  two 
wore  prepared  to  accompany  the  account  of  his  expe-  champiain's 
riences  in  the  new  world  since  1604  ;  and  a  third  was  *"*p®' 
perhaps  one  owned  by  Harrisse,  dated  in  1607,  showing  the 
coasts  and  harbors  of  New  France,  which  has  not  yet  been  en- 
graved. Of  the  maps  published  in  it,  one,  dated  1612,  is  larger 
than  the  other,  but  shows  a  lesser  extent  of  territory,  and 
Champlain  explains  that  it  was  "  constructed  according  to  com- 
passes of  France,  which  vary  to  the  northeast."  Its  interior 
geography  makes  clear  what  conceptions  respecting  the  great 
western  waters  Champlain  had  derived  from  the  stories  with 
which  the  Indians  had  regaled  him.  We  find  in  this  map  Lake 
Champlain  and  the  river  stretching  west  from  Boston  harbor 
brought  into  close  conjunction,  as  he  had  supposed  them  when  on 
the  New  England  coast.     Lake  Ontario  is  in  nearly  its  exact 


m 

■  W 
■^^i- 

'U 

s 

■  ■»- 

mI 

•p 


sri 


\-\'i 


^11 


«    i' 


\    « 


''!  :f  : 


f  hi 


104       COLONIZATION  ESTABLISHED  AT  QUEf^EC. 

position.  The  small  lakes  south  of  it  in  New  York  State  are 
coalesced  into  a  single  expanse  of  water,  which  he  calls  the 
Lake  of  the  Iroquois.     Farther  west  a  little  stream  flows  into 


SS& 


5S».    :st 


CHAMPLAIN'S  CONCEPTION 


the  lake,  'onveying  the  waters  of  a  natural  reservoir  not  far  off. 
Its  position  would  make  it  stand  for  the  inadequate  conception, 
which  Cham])lain  had  and  never  dispelled,  of  the  Niagara 
River  and  Lake  Erie.     At  its  extreme  western  end,  Ontario 


OF  ini 

he  ml 

Ontail 

Th< 

of  N« 


T^E  GREAT  LAKES. 


105 


receives  by  a  connecting  channel,  broken  by  a  fall,  the  waters 
of  Lake  Huron,  —  and  farther  west  the  map  does  not  go.  His 
suspicions  of  the  course  of  the  Ottawa  were  far  from  correct ; 


OF  THE   GREAT  LAKES,  1C12 


he  made  it   little  more  than  an   archipelago  which  fringed 
Ontario. 

The  other  of  the  two  maps  he  calls  "  a  geographical  map 
of  New  France  in  its  true  meridian,"  and  there  is  reason  to  be- 


'^  |4i 


\ 


u:| 


I  .^ii'' 


Mr  I 


lOG        COLONIZATION  ESTABLISHED  AT  QUEBEC. 

lieve  that,  dated  a  year  later  (1G13)  than  the  larger  map,  it  was 
made  even  after  the  Look  which  was  to  contain  it  was  nearly 
ready  to  leave  the  presg.  The  changes  in  it  from  the  other  map 
are  marked.  Lake  Ontario  has  disappeared,  and  a  network  of 
rivers  distinct  from  the  course  of  the  Ottawa  appears  in  its 
place,  —  a  conception  which  beguiled  Blaeu  and  other  cartog- 


CHAMPLAIN'S   MAP, 

raphers  at  a  later  day.  Another  distinguishing  feature  is  :i 
great  salt  sea  brought  out  at  the  north  in  something  like  its 
true  proportions.  In  this  delineation  ho  profited  by  the  report 
of  Hudson's  explorations,  which  had  laid  open  the  straits  named 
after  that  navigator,  with  the  great  bay  beyond,  where  Hudson 
had  wintered.  That  navigator's  mutinous  crew,  having  set  their 
commander  adrift  in  the  great  bay,  had  brought  back  to  Europe 
one  of  the  charts  which  he  had  made.     This  had  just  appeared 


1 


that 

Ch.J 

tliat 

Pai] 

whij 

incil 

knol 

<.f 

Mill 


HUDSON'S  MAP. 


107 


when   Champlain   was   revising  this   map,  in   nn   acoount  of 
Hudson's  voyage  which  was  published  at  Amsterdam  Hii.i»on'» 
(1012),  under  the  editing  of  Hermann  Gerritsz,  —  a  '""P" 
book  usually  cited  by  the  title  of  the  Latin  edition,  the  Detectio 
Fi'cti  Hudaoni.     Its  chart  gave  an  approximately  true  deline- 
ation of  the  great  northern  bay,  which  forced  an  easy  conjecture 

mnd  ftrenus 


m 


m\ 


■ 

1 

'1 
■ 

l». 


M\ 


1 


I  ■  > 


DATED  IN  1C13. 


IS    i\ 


that  it  would  reveal  a  westerly  connection  with  the  Pacific. 
Champlain  must  have  felt  that  it  confirmed  his  conception  of 
that  great  North  American  island  which  he  had  dreamed  of  at 
Panama.  It  was  a  conception  much  in  advance  of  the  views 
which  Ilondius,  the  most  popular  geographer  of  his  day,  was 
inculcating  in  the  different  editions  of  the  3Iercator  Atlas.  We 
know  that  such  professional  cartographers  as  Johannes  Oliva 
of  Marseilles  were  still  clinging  to  the  old  notions  of  Sebastian 
^liinster. 


1  i 
•V-  ■ 


108         COLONIZATION  ESTAIiLISIIED  AT  QUEHEC. 


!■  i 


Thoru  wiiH  one  aHpcct  of  the  IIikIhoii  map  which  Clmmplain 
engurly  seized  ui)on,  and  he  wa.s  inspired  by  it  with  a  new  hope 
The  north-  ^''^^^  ^'®  might  yot  itiach  this  northern  water,  either  by 
rrii  MM.        ^jjy  Saguenay,  by  the  rivers  that  debouched  at  Three 


HUDSON'S  EXPLOKATIONS. 


Rivers,  or  by  the  Ottawa.  We  find  him  possessed  by  such  a 
hope  in  the  dedicatory  letter  to  the  Prince  of  Conde,  which  he 
prefixed  to  his  new  book.  In  this  he  speaks  of  his  desire  to 
follow  more  persistently  a  search  for  this  northern  sea,  which 
he  expected  to  find  at  a  point  not  much  beyond  those  which  he 


j 


L 


i 


Vla.\AL"S  DKVKIT. 


109 


had  nlruady  reached.     His  mind  was  accordingly  prepared  to 
receive  any  statement  which  contirnicd  this  i    )H>etation. 

It  was  just  at  this  time  thai  (^hamplain\  credulity  in  this 
respect  was  put  to  u  test.     It  will  be  remembered  thiit  a  year 


[From  Gerrltsz'a  Tabula  Nauiica.'\ 

or  two  before,  he  had  allowed  a  young  man,  named  Nicolas 
de  Vignau,  to  winter  among  the  Algouquins,  where  he  was  ex- 
pected to  pick  up  what  he  could  of  their  tongue  and  Nicolas  de 
their  geographical  secrets.     This  youth  now  api)eared  ^'k"*"- 
in  Paris.     He  had  returned  from  the  wilderness  to  Quebec,  and 


N 


f  ■  i 


I  i. ' 


\ 


■  1 


ii^ 


r  f 


va\ 


110        COLONIZATION  ESTABLISHED  AT  QUEBEC. 

taken  passage  in  one  of  the  ships  coming  home  after  the  sum- 
mer trading.  Whether  he  started  from  Quebec  with  the  pur- 
pose of  ingratiating  himself  with  the  home  authorities  by  mak- 
ing up  a  story  to  flatter  the  prevailing  geographical  hopes,  or 
whether  he  was  induced  to  his  deceit  by  finding  Champlain 
ready  for  anything  which  confirmed  his  hopes,  may  not  be 
clear.  At  any  rate,  he  told  his  tale.  It  was  that  leaving  his 
Algonquin  hosts,  he  had  made  his  way  up  the  Ottawa  to  a  lake 
which  by  another  outlet  led  him  to  the  shores  of  a  salt  sea, 


HUDSON'S  BAY  AND  THE  ST.   LAWRENCE 
[As  delineated  in  1C13  in  tlie  Dehctio  Freti  Iliulsoni  (Amsterdam).] 

where  he  had  seen  the  wreck  of  an  English  ship.  This  story 
and  the  narrative  of  the  Hudson  voyage  obviously  confirmed 
each  other.  The  effect  was  natural.  Champlain  and  the  gen- 
tlemen of  the  court  interested  in  his  enterprise  readily  took 
Vignau's  story  to  mean  the  discovery  of  a  way  to  these  northern 
waters,  and  a  consequent  path  to  China.  No  time  was  to  be 
ciiamriain  ^0^^.  So  in  the  early  spring  (March)  of  1G13,  Chara- 
yu"b"c,*°  plain,  accompanied  by  Vignau,  was  once  more  at  sea. 
March,'iGi3.  ^rrivcd  at  Quebec  (May  8),  he  lost  little  time  in 
preparations,  and,  still  accompanied  by  Vignau  and  a  few 
others,  he  was  speedily  on  his  way  up  the  Ottawa. 


b 

c 

h 
tl 


CHAMPLAIN  ON  THE   OTTAWA. 


Ill 


On  the  little  flotilla  went.  They  paddled  or  poled  their 
canoes  by  day,  and  camped  on  the  banks  at  night.  Explores  the 
The  broken  current  often  compelled  them  to  bear  their  O"**"*- 


CHAMPLAIN'S  ASTROLABE,  1G03. 
[After  Cut  in  O.  H.  Marshall's  Historical  n'nVing  .] 

burdens  by  the  portages,  which  the  Indians  had  long  nsed. 
Champlain  noted  all  along  in  his  pocket-book  the  latitude  of 
his  camps,  and  his  figures  are  found  to  agree  pretty  well  with 
the  topographical  features  which  he  describes.     Suddenly,  at  a 


'\f 


II 

5;  ?i: 


H  I 


m 


') '. 


■til 


n 


m 


1  ■ 


hi 


112       COLONIZATION  ESTABLISHED  AT  QUEBEC. 


\$:-^ . 


i  ^1 


certain  portage  near  Muskrat  Lake,  his  entries  of  altitudes  be- 
come more  inaccurate.  Five  and  twenty  years  ago,  a  farmer 
working  in  the  field  at  this  point  turned  up  a  brass  astrolabe 
bearing  the  date  of  1603,  and  of  Paris  make.  These  errors 
of  his  altitudes  and  the  line  of  his  progress  render  it  almost 
certain  that  this  relic  was  Champlain's,  and  that  his  loss  of  it 
had  left  him  without  the  means  of  accurate  determination  of 
his  latitude. 

Champlain  stopped  at  a  village  to  procure  an  audience  with 
its  chief.  He  describes  the  festivals  which  were  made  in  his 
honor.  It  was  in  this  village  that  Vignau  had  spent  his  winter, 
and  the  youth  was  now  among  his  old  companions.  When 
Champlain  asked  for  an  escort  to  take  him  the  rest  of  Vignau's 
vignau's  ^^^^  ycar's  journey  to  the  salt  sea,  the  fellow's  rascally 
deceit.  deceit  was  exposed,  for  the  savages  knew  that  he  had 

never  left  them  on  any  such  journey,  during  his  sojourn  among 
them.  The  youth  could  but  confess  his  mendacity,  and  throw 
himself  on  his  leader's  mercy. 

There  was  nothing  left  for  Champlain  but  to  lead  his  party 
soberly  back  to  the  St.  Lawrence,  under  escoxt  of  a  crowd  of 
canoes  going  down  for  the  annual  trade. 

During  this  visit  to  Canada,  Champlain  spent  but  little  more 
than  two  months.  He  had  failed  in  his  search  at  the  north,  but 
he  had  at  last  got  an  intelligent  notion  of  the  course  of  the 
Ottawa,  and  was  able  to  correct  his  tentative  maps.  When  he 
reached  the  great  river,  he  found  seven  ships  trading  at  Mon- 
ti'eal.  The  scene  gave  him  a  new  conception  of  the  growth 
which  the  fur  trade  was  making. 

Going  to  Tadoussac,  he  embarked  there  on  July  8,  and  on 
the  26th  of  the  next  month,  his  ship  floated  with  the 

Bftck  111 

France.  Au-    tide  iuto  the  basin  of  St.  Malo. 

France  had  now  transferred  her  chief  interests  to 
the  vast  northern  valley.  She  saw  there  the  best  chance  of 
progress  to  the  west,  and  the  allurements  of  the  trade  in  peltries 
were  rapidly  growing  upon  her  connnercial  sense.  Her  settle- 
ments along  the  Maine  coast  easily  lost  their  hold.  The  Dutch 
indeed  did  not  now  reach  them,  but  Adrian  Block, 
in  the  little  "  Onrust,"  sailing  from  Manhattan,  had 
pushed  around  Cape  Cod,  and  established  the  northern  claims 
of  that  people  at  Nahaut.     It  is  to  Block  and  the  Dutch  that 


1G13, 


4 


CHAMPLAIN'S  DESCRIPTIONS. 


118 


we  now  begin  to  look  foi'  developments  in  the  hydrography  of 
Massachusetts  Bay.  The  English  were  more  enterprising,  and 
a  party  from  Virginia  in  an  armed  vessel,  under  Samuel  Argt  U, 
hoverinff  about  Mount  Desert,  found  a  convenient 
moment  to  take  a  settlement  of  the  Jesuits  unawares. 
They  fell  upon  it,  and  carried  off  some  of  the  French  to  James< 
town,  and  made  a  like  raid  the  next  year. 


SHIP  OF  1G13. 
[From  the  Delectio  Freti  Iludsoni,  Amsterdam,  1613.] 

Champlain  had  been  licensed  on  January  9, 1613,  to  print  the 
book  which  contained  his  maps.  The  narrative,  beside  enabling 
us  to  follow  his  adventures,  gives  us  one  of  the  earliest  descrip- 
tions of  the  animals  and  plants  of  our  northern  coasts.  ISIen  of 
science,  however,  to-day  find  his  accounts  far  less  satisfactory 
than  those  of  the  Englishmen,  Hariot  and  White,  on  the  Vir- 
ginia coast  twenty  years  before. 


ia 


il  i'! 


'  ^ 


(i 


Ibr 


i|j|  i  ill 


'J 


'ft  V 


•M 


11 


CHAPTER  VI. 

WAR,  TRADE,    AND    MISSIONS.        THE    FALL    OP    QUEBEC. 

1614-1629. 

Champlain  now  remained  in  France  for  the  better  part  of 
two  years.  He  was  chiefly  employed  in  strengthening  the  com- 
mercial plans  of  the  colony,  and  in  arranging  for  the  introduc- 
tion of  priests.  The  fur  company  saw  little  profit  in  assnining 
the  expenses  of  the  proposed  missions,  and  Champlain's  efforts 
to  get  money  for  their  suppoi't  were  necessarily  turned  in  other 
directions. 

The  sending  of  Catholic  missionaries  was  not  grateful  to  a 
company  in  which  Protestant  interests  were  still  paramount, 
and  in  which  there  must  naturally  be  other  grounds  of  dislike 
of  such  associations.  The  priests  saw  the  best  chance  of  con- 
verting the  natives  in  making  them  first  sedentary.  The  trad- 
ing instinct  knew  that  this  meant  a  diminution  of  fur  hunters. 
So  for  some  years  there  was  a  struggle  at  court.  On 
and  the        thc  ouc  side,  the  priests  and  their  friends  aimed  to 

Till*  fr  rfL^  (^ 

secure  royal  recognition  of  the  spiritual  needs  of  the 
Indians.  On  the  other,  the  trading  associates  claimed  a  longer 
lease  of  their  mercenary  project,  on  the  plea  that  they  were 
working  the  country  on  the  best  terms  for  France  and  her  pros- 
perity. While  the  traders  maintained  their  advantage,  Cham- 
plain  had  nothing  to  do  but  to  get  along  with  his  plans  as 
best  he  could  without  their  assistance. 

Champlain  succeeded  on  his  own  account  in  making  some 
arrangement  with  a  few  priests  of  the  Kecollect  order,  and  it 

was  agreed  that  Dennis  Jamay,  Jean  d'Olboau,  and 

Joseph  Le  Caron  should  accom})any  him  to  Quebec. 
A  lay  brother,  Pacifique  du  Plessis,  accompanied  the  priests. 
Champlain  Champlain  and  his  new  suj)porters  sailed,  in  a  vessel 
11115  ^^"''    commanded  by  his  old  friend,  Pontgravc,  on  April 

24,  1015. 


Recollects. 


THE  IROQUOIS. 


115 


'1 1 


The  Recollect  stood  for  the  strictest  discipline  that  the  Fran- 
ciscan could  endure.  His  loose  and  coarse  gray  vestment  was 
girt  at  the  waist  with  a  cord,  and  his  pointed  hood,  if  not 
protecting  his  crown,  hung  behind.  His  feet  were  uncovered 
except  by  a  wooden  sole  ;  and  he  passed  among  men,  seeming 
holy  and  patient,  and  he  clung  to  poverty  and  humility. 

It  was  May  when  the  ship  reached  Quebec.     A  chapel  was 
at  once  built,  and  on  June  15  the  priests  celebrated  ^^y  ^^ 
their  first  mass.    It  was  the  first  since  the  colonization  Q"«''«<=- 
of  the  country,  though  there  is  some  reason  to  believe  that  the 
early  explorers  may  have  listened  to  the  holy  words  at  Brest  in 
1534,  and  possibly  on  the  rock  of  Quebec  two  years  later. 

It  was  now  arranged  that  Jamay  should  remain  at  the  settle- 
ment. D'Olbeau  was  soon  on  his  way  to  sojourn  among  the 
Montagnais,  and  Le  Caron  started  to  set  up  his  altar  in  the 
Huron  villages.  Sagard,  in  speaking  of  these  Canadian  tribes, 
classes  the  Hurons  as  the  nobility,  and  the  Montagnais  as  the 
rabble  of  the  woods.  To  the  Algonquins,  who  were  called  the 
burghers  of  the  forest,  no  priest  was  yet  assigned. 

Champlain,  in  dealing  with  the  Indian  problem  of  his  day, 
found  himself  confronted  by  an  ethnological  anomaly,  i,,^)^,, 
This  part  of  the  continent  was  in  the  main  occupied  ^'st"'^"t"'°- 
by  tribes  of  the  Algonquin  stock ;  but  in  the  midst  of  this 
expansion  of  a  common  blood  there  was  a  sort  of  linguistic 
island,  bounded  on  all  sides  by  foreign  races.  Within  this 
island  the  core  was  held  by  the  Iroquois,  a  confed- 
eracy which  represented  the  ideal  of  savage  existence. 
They  occupied  the  region  immediately  south  of  the  Upper  St. 
Lawrence  and  Lake  Ontario.  Skirting  their  somewhat  irregu- 
lar domain  on  all  sides  but  the  north  and  east  lay  the  con- 
geners of  the  Iroquois,  known  as  the  Ilurons,  the  Tobacco 
nation,  the  Neuters,  the  Eries,  and  the  Andastes,  —  this  I'ange 
of  people  making  a  sweep  from  the  northwest  at  Georgian 
Bay  to  the  headwaters  of  the  Susquehanna  on  the  south. 
Thus  these  cousins  of  the  Iroquois  pressed  in  upon  the  country 
of  the  confederates  on  all  sides.  They  had  found  their  positions 
by  no  means  comfortable,  for  their  brethren  at  the  core,  the 
Iroquois  people,  were  cruelly  hostile  to  all  of  them,  forcing 
them  not  only  to  band  together,  but  also  to  form  alliances  with 
the   remoter  Algonquins.     The   only  exception  was  with   the 


Iroquois. 


:  \t    \ 


'^V^A 


■!;;;' ill 


■!^B 


,    V. 

n 


:  S-l 


ill' 


1    ti 


(i  ^ 


1'  %■■■ 


116 


WAR,    TRADE,   AND  MISSIONS. 


H"\  ■ 


l^'-k 


V'-  t 


J^2L-i 


Neuters,  who  suffered  both  the  Hurons  and  Iroquois  to  raid 
across  their  territory  along  the  Niagara,  but  compelled  them  to 
be  amicable  if  they  met  in  their  villages.  We  have  seen  that 
Champlain  had  already  provoked  the  hostility  of  the  Iroquois, 
and  the  further  alliance  which  he  was  now  seeking  with  the 
Hurons  through  priestly  service  was  sure  to  serve  as  a  new 
pretext  for  the  confederates'  fierce  persecutions  of  the  latter 
tribe. 

Champlain  was  quite  ready  to  meet  this  hostility,  and  was 
Campaign  prompt  cvcn  to  anticipate  it.  Accordingly,  he  planned 
ifMuoisf^  with  the  St.  Lawrence  Indians  an  invasion  of  the 
1615.  Iroquois  country.     The  route  by  Lake  Champlain  in- 

volved too  long  a  march  through  the  enemy's  country,  for  the 
stronghold  of  the  confederates,  which  they  intended  to  attack, 
lay  south  of  the  easterly  end  of  Lake  Ontario.  Moreover,  the 
French  leader  expected  that,  by  a  circuitous  route  through  the 
country  of  his  allies,  he  could  increase  his  force  as  he  proceeded. 
The  path  marked  out,  however,  lengthened  the  march  to  not 
much  short  of  a  thousand  miles.  He  started  on  this  recruiting 
service  accompanied  by  Brule,  the  interpreter,  a  French  servant, 
July.  On  the  ^^^  Several  savages.  On  July  9,  with  such  coni- 
ottawa.  panions,  and  in  two  canoes,  he  began  the  ascent  of  the 
Ottawa.  His  passage  of  it  with  Vignau  had  already  familiai*- 
ized  him  with  some  of  its  harassing  obstacles,  and  it  was 
because  of  that  bootless  expedition  to  the  delusive  northern 
sea  that  the  tribes  through  whose  territory  he  now  pus.sed 
recognized  one  whom  they  had  already  known,  and  would  now 
readily  serve.  From  the  valley  of  the  Ottawa  ho  crossed  the 
divide  and  reached  Lake  Nipissing,  whence  he  continued  by 
its  outflowing  stream  to  the  Georgian  Bay.  Geologists  have 
recently  pointed  out  that  a  subsidence  of  about  a  hnndrod  feot 
near  Lake  Nipissing  would  turn  the  water  of  the  Grout  Lakes  for 
the  most  part  into  the  Ottawa,  and  make  a  practicable  route 
for  navigation  270  miles  shorter  than  by  Lake  Erie  and 
Ontario ;  indeed,  the  evidence  seems  tc  be  that  this  was  the 
channel  to  the  sea  in  the  geological  period,  and  it  lias  been  in 
hi.storic  times  the  easiest  route  to  the  upper  lakes  known  to  the 
Indians,  followed  by  Champlain,  and  adopted  by  the  engineers 
of  the  Canadian  Pacific  Railway. 

Champlain  next  crept  by  the  lake  shore  along  the  oxtrcnio 


CHAMPLAIN'S   CAMPAIGN. 


117 


southern  part  of  this  arm  of  Lake  Huron,  to  the  neighborhood 
of  the  Huron  villages.  Here  that  leader  found  Le  Caron  at  his 
missionary  work,  and  eight  Frenchmen  from  the  Recollects'  com- 
pany joined  in  the  march.  Word  now  reached  this  gathering 
host  that  a  body  of  Andastes,  living  about  the  headwaters  of 
the  Susquehanna,  were,  to  the  number  of  five  hundred,  anxious 
to  take  part  in  this  attack  upon  their  common  enemy.  The 
Andastes  villages  lay  beyond  the  Iroquois  country  to  the  south, 
and  they  could  approach  the  confederates'  fort  from  the  side 
opposite  to  the  Huron  attack.  It  was  accordingly  necessary 
that  communication  should  be  opened  with  these  proposed 
allies,  in  order  that  their  attack  should  be  well-timed.  Brule 
volunteered  to  reach  them.  He  succeeded  in  passing  the  hos- 
tile villages  of  the  Iroquois,  possibly  by  the  route  indicated 
by  the  dotted  line  in  Champlain's  map  of  1632,  but  was  not 
able  to  get  the  reinforcement  to  the  attack  in  season,  as  we 
shall  see. 

Moving  on  from  the  Huron  country,  the  savage  force,  accom- 
panied by  Champlain  and  his  compatriots,  turned  towards  the 
southeast,  and  finally  struck  the  course  of  the  Trent,  which 
easily  conducted  them  to  the  borders  of  Lake  Ontario.  They 
reached  its  shores  in  the  neighborhood  of  the  modern  Kingston. 
Here  they  embarked  in  their  canoes,  and  crossing  the  lake  by 
skirting  a  line  of  intervening  islands,  the  native  flotilla  made  a 
variegated  show  on  the  mirroring  water.  There  is  not  an 
agreement  among  investigators  upon  the  exact  route  which  was 
taken,  but  somewhere  on  the  shore  which  stretches  south  of 
Sackett's  Harbor,  the  party  landed,  and  concealed  their  canoes 
in  a  neighboring  thicket.  There  was  before  them  a  march 
inland  and  almost  due  south.  The  local  antiquaries  have  en- 
deavored by  examining  the  ground,  and  by  following  Cham- 
plain's  details  of  his  march,  to  determine  the  precise  site  of 
the  fortified  town  of  the  Onondagas,  which  they  sought.  Mr. 
O.  II.  Marshall  and  others  turn  the  route  after  crossing  the  out- 
let of  Lake  Oneida  to  the  southwest,  towards  a  position  on  Onon- 
daga Lake.  General  John  S.  Clark,  who  has  secured  a  more 
general  acceptance  for  his  views,  shapes  the  invaders'  course 
rather  to  the  southeast,  and  brings  them  to  a  point  on  a  small 
pond,  where  he  finds  remains  on  the  ground  which  serve,  as  he 
thinks,  to  identify  the  spot.     These  traces  conform  in  the  main 


- 1' 


ili. 


ill 


.    I 


|1 


ii,H 


i 


\i  i 


I 


A  .'i- 


118 


if: 


i'  ■    t 


WAR,    TRADE,  AND  MISSIONS. 


to  a  plan  of  the  fortress,  whitrh  Chainplain  depicts  in  one  of 
the  plates  accompanying  his  narrative.     The  later  writers,  like 

Shea,  Slafter,  and  Park- 
man,  follow  General 
Clark's  lead  with  scarce- 
ly any  hesitation.  The 
Indian  stronghold  was 
hexagonal  in  form,  with 
four  rows  of  lofty  pali- 
sades, interlaced  with 
withes.  These  walls  sup- 
l)orted  a  gallery  for  war- 
riors, which  ran  around 
the  top.  From  the  side 
next  the  pond,  water  was 
introduced  and  conducted 
to  gutters,  which  could 
be  discharged  upon  fires, 
if  built  against  the  outer 
palisades. 

It  was  before  this  for- 
tress that  Champlain  and 
his  allies  appeared  on 
October  10,  1G15.  The 
a'  tack  on  the  part  of  the 
savages  was  a  wild  luiri-y- 
scuriy  of  boisterous  movement,  and  some  time  passed  before 
October  Champlain  could  temper  their  frenzied  zeal.  He 
caused  a  tower  to  bo  built,  and  put  some  of  his  marks- 
men in  it,  to  be  i)ushed  up  to  overtop  the  palisades. 
This  worked  very  well ;  but  all  his  precautions  to  regulate  the 
attempts  to  fire  the  timbers  of  the  outer  defenses  failed,  through 
the  misdirected  precipitancy  of  his  Indians.  Some  of  the  be- 
siegers were  wounded,  and  Champlain  himself  had  to  draw 
hostile  arrows  from  his  own  knee  and  ankle. 

When  the  assailants  found  they  had  made  no  impression  on 
the  defenses,  they  shrank  as  Indians  always  do  at  a  repulse, 
and  the  disabled  Cham])lain  was  unequal  to  the  task  of  hold- 
ing them  to  the  attack.  The  whole  mass  of  shrieking  savages 
accordingly  fell  back  under  cover  of  the  woods.     They  were 


CKAMPLAIX'S    ROUTE,  1015. 


10,  1(!15, 
The  fort 
attacked. 


CHAMPLAIN'S  RETREAT. 


119 


ready,  however,  to  renew  the  onset,  if  Brul^  and  hi8  five  hun- 
ilred  Andastes  should  come  to  their  assistance.  Brul^  was  three 
diiys  away  among  the  villages  of  that  people,  who  had  not  yet 
finished  their  revelries  at  the  prospect  of  punishing  the  Iroquois. 
Brule  proved  powerless  to  move  them  on. 


THE    ONONDAGA    FORT. 

[After  Chiimiilaiirs  Sketcli.] 

Five  days  of  inaction  or  of  paltry  skirmishing  followed,  and 
the  Andastes  not  appearing,  a  retreat  was  begun.  If  champiain 
the  shattered  horde  had  waited  two  or  three  days  ''•^*'^^*'8- 
longer,  the  succor  would  have  come.  The  wounded  Cliamplain, 
unable  to  bear  his  weight,  was  placed  in  a  basket  slung  from 
men's  shoulders,  and  in  this  mode  he  was  borne  away  from  a 
disheartening  failure.  It  was  his  last  expedition,  and  a  sad 
contrast  to  his  heedless  onset  at  Ticonderoga  six  years  before. 
That  foolish  precipitancy  was  avenged.  His  straggling  force 
reached  the  lake  without  serious  interruption  from  its  pursuers. 


m^ 


■I 


-;  i 


f  '1 


■ih 


n 

i'.A 
:'■■  J 

•-     't: 

i.si 


r .- 1 


■■:  ;  ■  t 

,»:;'; ; 

(■■!.; 

I  ,. 

!  '  ■ 

:.■■- 
\ '',■■'■ 

r. 


120 


WAR,   TRADE,  AND  MISSIONS. 


''(' 


The  fugitives  found  their  canoes  untouched,  and  embarked  *, 
and  were  soon  on  the  northern  shore  of  Ontario. 

The  Hurons  seem  to  have  had  a  purpose  in  keeping  Cliani- 
plain  with  them  through  the  winter ;  or  at  least  ho  was  not  able 
to  find  any  guide  to  accompany  him  to  the  settlements.  The 
savages  tarried  for  a  while  on  the  border  of  the  lake,  to  kill  a 
winter's  supply  of  deer.  The  rest  gave  Champlaiu's  wounds 
Dec,  1G15.  ^"16  to  heal.  When  the  frosts  of  December  ensued, 
retur""'^*'"'  and  the  ground  was  frozen,  the  trails  became  easier  to 
home.  traverse,  and  the  Hurons  with  their  guest  departed 

for  their  towns. 


THE    HURON    COX'XTUY. 
[From  Creitxiiis.] 


It  was  thus  that  Champlain  spent  the  winter  of  1(515-10  in 
the  Huron  country,  in  the  neighborhood  of  Lake  Simcoe.  The 
passing  months  gave  him  opi)ortunities  to  visit  the  adjacent  and 
allied  tribes,  where  he  found  much  matter  for  his  note-books. 
He  records  that  the  Indians  could  give  him  no  knowledge  of 
cimmpiaiu  wliat  lay  bcyoud  the  Jler  Douce  (Lake  Huron),  ex- 
dSit^ "  cept  that  prisoners  taken  from  the  more  distant  tribes 
people.         jj^^i  gjj^jj  ^Ijj^i;  g^j|2  farther  on  towards  the  setting  sun 

there  was  a  people  who  had  light-colored  hair  and  looked  like 
the  French. 

When  the  spring  came,  Champlain  took  advantage  of  a  party 


ETIENNE  imULE. 


121 


of  Indians  going  eastward  to  accompany  them.     On  reaching 
Montreal,   he    found   Pontgravo   just    arrived    from 
France,  and  got  the  latest  news.     On  July  11,  ho  was  ABain  in  ' 
again  in  Quebec,  after  an  absence  of  nearly  a  year.    In 
the  few  succeeding  days,  he  made  plans  for  enlarging  and  rei)air- 
ing  the  buildings  of  the  post,  and  on  July  20  was  on  ^^^^  j^ 
his  way  to  Tadoussac.     Embarking  there  on  August  3,  *"'"'""=«• 
he  arrived  at  Honfleur  on  September  10. 

Champlain  was  again  in  the  colony  in  1617,  but  he  has  left 
no  record  of  what  he  did.     Pacifique  du  Plessis  founded  a  mis- 
sion at  Three  Rivers  which  served  to  give  stability  to  j^,;    i„ 
a  trading-post  which  had  been  maintained  there  for  ^'"""J"- 
some  years ;  and  the  settlement  soon  became  and  long  remained 
a  chief  centre  for  the  hardy  voyageurs  of  the  country.     This 
class  did  little,  however,  to  introduce  family  life,  and  it  was 
lioped  that,  when   Louis  Hcbert  and  his   household  jo,,,, 
arrived   at  Quebec,  not  far  from  the   same  time,  a  "''^^'^*- 
beginning  was  made  in  the  more  permanent  elements  of  colo- 
nial life ;  but  Hubert  remained  for  a  long  time  the  only  con- 
spicuous example  of  a  farmer  in  the  valley.     He  was  an  apoth- 
ecary by  training,  but   he   had  exhibited  while   domiciled   in 
Acadia  a  liking  for  the  soil  and  its  labors.     He  stands  in  the 
Canadian  genealogies  to-day  as   the   progenitor  of    numerous 
representatives  who  rejoice  in  their  descent  from  the  man  who 
first  practically  grasped  the  essential  truth  of  colonial  policy, 
and  worked  the  soil  like  one  bound  to  it. 

It  was  during  Champlain's  sojourn  in  the  valley  in  1G18  that 
his  old   interpreter,  Etienne  Bruli:;,  returned  to  the 
settlement.     The  governor  had  last  seen  him  when  he  i>iuK"a 

,,»,       TT  i«i         wanderings. 

was  (lispatchetl  from  the  Huron  company  to  brmg  the 
Andastes  to  the  attack  on  the  Iroquois  fort,  three  years  before. 
Brule  had  now  the  opportunity  to  disclose  the  cause  of  his  fail- 
ure, and  to  explain  his  later  wanderings.  It  apjieared  that 
when  Brule  finally  brought  the  Andastes  to  the  neighborhood 
of  the  Iroquois  stronghold,  it  was  only  to  learn  that  the  Hurons 
had  departed,  and  there  was  no  alternative  left  but  a  like 
retreat  on  their  part.  Brule  remained  the  following  winter 
with  his  savage  friends,  but  later,  it  would  appear,  he  passed 
down  the  Susquehanna  to  Chesapeake  Bay,  and  by  this  ad- 
venture he  had  established  the  direction  of  its  course.     If  Sa- 


H. 


''M 

.     I 


•^li'i 


/iil! 


m 


iM 


122 


WAIt,   TRADE,  AND  MISSIONS. 


t    I 


I   1 


giird'H  account  is  to  be  truHted,  Brule  hud  in  Hoine  manner  also 
made  Iiis  way  westward,  ho  as  to  find  the  sliores  of  Luke  Supe- 
rior. He  averred  that  it  took  nine  days  to  reach  the  western 
extremity  of  some  such  water.  The  stories  which  he  told  of  a 
rei>;ion  of  copper  mines  point  to  this  lake,  and  Sagard  says  that 
Brule  showed  to  him  an  ingot  of  that  metal  which  was  found 
there.  In  making  his  return  journey,  the  wanderer  fell  among 
the  Iroquois.  He  was  wont  to  point  to  his  wounds  to  show 
that  he  had  tmdergone  tortures  at  their  hands.  His  own  story 
betrays  an  abundance  of  tact  in  ingratiating  himself  with  sav- 
ages wherever  he  went.  His  spirit  and  facile  habit  served  to 
convert  the  Iroquois  enmity  into  a  liking  for  him,  and  they 
made  it  easy  for  him  to  reach  the  Huron  countiy,  whence  he 
could  join  the  summer  flotilla,  descending  the  Ottawa. 

One  of  the  most  conspicuous  of  the  pioneers  to  follow  up 
these  discoveries  of  Bruld  —  whatever  they  may  have  been  — 
.     ,.    .      was  a  young  Norman,  Jean  Nicolet,  who  arrived   iust 

JoaaNicolet.  ...  /-  . 

at  this  time  in  the  valley,  and  was  sent  by  Champlain 
among  the  Algonquins  to  inure  himself  to  hardship  and  to 
learn  their  language.     We  shall  encounter  him  again. 

Early  the  next  spring,  Champlain,  once  more  in  Paris,  pro- 
cured (May  18,  1G19)  a  license  to  print  a  new  vol- 
ume of  his  experiences.  It  was  to  cover  the  interval 
since  his  incursion  into  the  Iroquois  country  in  1G15. 
The  book  was  better  calculated,  perhaps,  than  either  of  those 
preceding  it  to  awaken  the  curious  reader.  It  covered  a  larger 
field  of  exploration,  and  gave  better  glimpses  of  the  country 
and  what  it  could  produce.  It  mingled  the  excitements  of  war 
with  the  horrors  of  torture.  It  afforded  greater  details  of  life 
among  the  natives.  The  drawings,  whose  production  had  be- 
guiled weary  hours  during  his  confinement  in  the  Huron  vil- 
lages, had  passed  the  hand  of  the  engraver,  and  helped  to  give 
a  lively  interest  to  the  book.  Its  publication  was  successful 
enough,  if  we  may  judge  by  its  passing  to  a  second  edition  the 
following  year. 

In  the  autumn  of  1G19,  the  Recollects  began  to  make  prepa- 
rations for  building  on  the  St.  Charles,  opposite  Que* 

1C20.    The  "  ,  .  '11  «-   ^ 

Rei'oiie<t8      bee,  and  on  June  3,  1G20,  six  months  before  the  Pil- 

"''"w"*      grims  began  their  meeting-house  on  the  Burial  Hill  at 

Plymouth,  these  priests  laid  the  corner-stone  of  the 


Clmiii|)li\in 
priiitH  it  iiuw 
imrrutlve. 


THE  FRENCH   OCCUPATION. 


123 


i  ** 


tntllH  lu- 
diitlia. 


carlieHt  church  erected  in  Fromh  Ameiica.  It  was  paliHadcd 
like  a  stronghold,  anil  there  proved  to  be  need  of  it.  The  Eng- 
lish SoparatistH  at  Plymouth  constructed  their  gathering-place 
with  battlements  for  their  snuUl  guns,  and  there  was  no  need  of 
it.  For  fifty  years  and  more  they  lived  in  peace  with  their 
savage  neighbors. 

The  Indians  surrounding  the  settlement  on  the  St.  Lawrence 
were  in  a  fair  way  to  attain  the  Christian  mode  of  warfare. 
If  we  may  believe  Champlain,  two  vessels  from  Uochellc,  trad- 
ing in  the  river  this  very  season,  began  the  prai'tice  of 
selling  arms  and  ammunition  to  the  natives.  Matters 
had  been  growing  njoro  ami  moiH)  trying  for  Cham- 
plain.  His  colonizing  purpose  and  the  trading  aims  of  the 
merchants  were  greatly  at  variance,  and  grew  more  so.  Such 
practices  as  this  of  supplying  weapons  to  the  savages  could  but 
prove  dangerous  to  a  community  which  was  left  to  pass  the 
winters  in  small  numbers,  after  the  fur-ships  had  departed  in 
the  autumn  and  the  traders  had  plunged  into  the  wilderness. 
This  danger  was  presented  to  the  council  of  state,  and  an  in- 
junction was  served  on  the  traders  to  pitivent  the  selling  of 
arms. 

In  1620,  the  vice-royal  office  was  transferred  to  the  Duke  of 
Montmorency,  who  at  once  recommissionod  Champlain,  with 
ampler  powers  to  enforce  measui'os  of  safety.  Champlain,  leav- 
ing France  in  May,  1621,  found  the  colony  on  his  j^,,j 
arrival  in  a  sadly  disorgani/x'd  state.  Ho  saw  that 
such  a  promise  of  stability  as  would  come  from  greater 
permanence  of  living  would  do  much  to  encourage  the  drooping 
spirits.  lie  endeavored,  therefore,  to  arrange  for  a  more  sys- 
tematic cidtivation  of  the  soil;  but  he  luiturally  encountered 
the  opposition  of  the  trading  interest. 

The  purely  mercantile  character  of  the  French  occupation  of 
the  St.  Lawrence  did  not  escape  the  notice  of  their 
English  rivals.  Sir  William  Alexander,  in  a  tract 
which  he  published  in  1624  to  induce  a  more  active 
immigration  to  his  province  of  New  Scotland  (Nova  Scotia) 
on  the  part  of  his  countrymen,  accounts  for  tlio  want  of  stabil- 
ity in  the  French  colony,  in  that  they  were  "  only  desirous  to 
know  the  nature  and  quality  of  the  soil  and  did  never  seek  to 
have  [its  products]  in  such  quantity  as  was  requisite  for  their 


Champlain 
at  (jiiebec. 


the  French 
occupation. 


\\\ 


I'll 


m 


fi-'- 


1: 


124 


WAR,    TRADE,  AND  MISSIONS. 


i  [ 


' ;  lit 


i '  ' 


s|i: 


Montmo- 
rency and 
Champlaiu. 


maintenance,  affecting  more  by  making  a  needless  ostentation 
that  the  world  should  know  they  had  been  there,  more  in  love 
with  glory  than  with  virtue.  .  .  .  Being  always  subject  to  divi- 
sions among  themselves,  it  was  impossible  that  they  could  sub- 
sist, which  proceeded  sometimes  from  emulation  or  envy,  and  at 
other  times  from  the  laziness  of  the  disposition  of  some,  who, 
loathing  labor,  could  be  commanded  by  none." 

This  thwarting  of  the  aims  of  true  colonization  by  the  trad- 
ing associates  induced  Montmorency  to  dissolve  the 
old  company  and  create  a  new  one.  He  again  placed 
Champlain  in  charge,  with  renewed  powers  of  ad- 
ministration, while  the  control  of  the  business  interests  was 
committed  to  the  Hugu<^nots,  Guillaume  de  Caen  and  his 
nephew  Emeric.  The  older  company  proved  too  strong  to  be 
sujjijressed,  and  a  rivalry  between  the  two  followed,  only  to 
result  in  the  end  in  a  consolidation  under  a  single  organization. 
Amid  all  these  intestine  disputes,  Champlain  could  but 
champiain's  obscrvc  sigus  of  larger  rivalries.  With  Calvert  at 
and  other  Fcrryland,  in  Newfoundland,  and  that  island  become 
neighbors.  ^  j^^gg  f^j,  operations,  the  English  were  not  likely  to 
remain  as  inactive  as  they  had  been.  Champlain  must  have 
heard,  moreover,  how  busy  his  neighbors  on  the  New  England 
coast  had  become.  Dernier  had  just  before  this  been  exploring 
south  from  Monhegan ;  and  perhaps  it  was  at  Boston  harbor 
that  he  fancied  he  had  stumbled  on  a  western  passage  "  which 
may  hereafter  be  both  honorable  and  profitable  to  His  Majesty." 
When  this  same  commander  was  at  Manhattan,  he  had  similar 
hopes  from  stories  of  inland  watercourses  which  came  to  his 
ears.  Not  far  from  the  same  time,  Purchas  in  England  was 
learning  that  the  Indians  about  the  Chesapeake  were  reporting 
upon  ships  seen  at  the  northwest,  supposed  by  those  who  heard 
the  tales  to  have  come  from  Japan.  And  so  along  a  northern 
and  southern  parallel  there  was  a  race  for  the  China  Seas. 

Nor  was  it  the  English  alone  who  gave  him  uneasiness.  The 
ships  for  Quebec  ran  the  gauntlet  of  the  Basques,  Flemings,  and 
Spaniards  in  the  St.  Lawrence  Gulf,  and  Champiain's  supply- 
vessels  were  even  occasiv>aally  brought  under  the  guns  of  the 
little  Basque  stronghold  at  the  Island  of  St.  John.  Once,  indeed, 
a  hardy  intruder  had  dared  to  run  his  ship  up  to  Tadoussac.  If 
Champlain  had  chanced  to  see  the  Dutch  map  of  Jacobsz,  just 


no 
tu 
th 
CI 
la 


TREATY   WITH  THE  INDIANS. 


125 


now  (1G21)  made  public,  he  would  have  read  with  some  solici- 
tude the  legend  of  "  Nouvelle  Bisquaye  "  about  the  mouth  of 
the  Saguenay.  We  can  understand,  then,  why  it  was  that 
Champlain  thought  of  the  insecurity  of  Quebec,  and  planned  a 
larger  fortress  on  the  summit  of  Cape  Diamond. 


But  there  were  other  more  immediate  dangers  for  the  little 
colony,  which  hardly  ever  numbered  in  these  years  above  a  few 
score  souls.  During  the  summer  of  1622,  thirty  Iroquois  igoo 


Iro- 
quois on 


canoes  were  observed  to  pass  Three  Rivers,  proceeding  ^^e  st.  Law- 
towards  Quebec.      Their   subsequent   attack   on   the  "^^'"^ 


,    ■;.')• 


-i.| 


It 


■    ■    *  : 

i  !  ■ 


r^ 


'II;;;  i 


i 

:     i 

'\  ■:     ■ 

■4  I 

.iSii,  ! 


i'3 


126 


WAR,    TRADE,   AND  MISSIONS. 


Iv 


Recollect  convent  on  the  St.  Charles  is  not  mentioned  either 
by  Chaniplain  or  Sagard,  which  has  thrown  some  doubt  on  the 
recital  given  in  Le  Clercq.  Champlain  indeed  was  absent  at 
the  time,  and  the  Recollect  father  who  tells  us  how  the  savages 
were  repulsed  says  that  he  got  his  information  from  Madam 
Couillard,  who  was  within  the  palisades  all  the  while.  This  ]ios- 
sible  danger  passed,  it  was  not  long  before  two  Iroquois  envoys 
came  to  Quebec  and  began  negotiations,  which  in  the 
with  the        spring  of  1G24  ended  in  a  large  concourse  of  Hurons, 

Indians.  »  ,  .  ht  .it  •  • 

Algonquuis,  Montagnais,  and  Iroquois  coming  to 
Three  Rivers  to  light  their  council  fires  and  confirm  a  pact.  If 
the  peace  had  come  earlier,  Champlain  might  have  profited  by 
the  quiet,  and  had  the  opportunity  to  confirm  the  stories  of 
Brule  ;  but  he  had  followed  his  last  trail,  and  the  mysteries  of 
the  west  were  left  for  others  to  solve. 

The  governor  soon  welcomed  (1623)  two  more  Recollects  to 

the  colony,  one  of  whom  was  Gabriel  Sagard,  upon 

whose  printed  account  of  Canada  we  must  in  some 
measure  depend,  as  our  story  goes  on.  With  the  satisfaction  of 
being  able  to  carry  home  good  news  of  the  quiet  which  had  set- 
tled along  the  borders  of  his  government,  and  prepared  to  tell 

the  king  the  story  of  a  four  years'  devotion  to  his 

August  15 

ir,24.  cim'm-  iutcrests,  Champlain  left  Quebec  on  August  15,  1624. 

plain  Ictives 

Quebecwith  Ills  wifc  was  with  him,  for  he  had  married  Holene 
Boulle,  on  his  last  visit  to  France,  and  she  had  passed 
these  four  years  of  novel  experiences  amid  associations  for  which 
her  early  life  had  little  fitted  her.  He  landed  at  Dieppe,  Oc- 
tober 1,  1621. 


Sagard. 


During  the  two  years  which  Champlain  now  passed  in  France, 

there  were  some  important  movements  touching  the  future  of 

Canada.     In  the  first  place,  the  Duke  of  Montmorency  sold  his 

vicerovalty  to  the  Duke  of  Ventadour,  and  February 

lf,25.    Again    i-      ^po"     ni  1    *  4.    J     *l  •  ' 

comuus-        10,  lu2o,  Champlain  was  created  the  new  viceroy  s 

hioned.  .  t'i-iii'  •• 

representative.  It  is  claimed  that  his  new  commission 
affords  the  earliest  official  record  of  a  purpose  to  find  a  way  to 
(^hina.  Kingsford,  in  his  recent  H'lMory  of  (jnnmla^  suggests 
that  the  language  was  inserted  by  Jesuit  influence ;  yet  in  a 
petition  in  1621  the  Recollects  reminded  the  king  that  "  by  a 
continuation  of  former  explorations  a  passage  to  go  to  China 
could  be  opened." 


SIR    WILLIAM  ALEXANDE 


127 


;l 


By  1G24,  when  Sir  William  Alexander  published  his  Encoxir- 
(jf/ament  to    Colonies^  the   theoretical   geography   of 
Cliamplain  respecting  the  western  waters  had  become  theorctuai 
known  in  England.     Alexander,  referring  to  it,  says 
tliat  at  the  western  end  of  a  range  of  lakes,  the  French  "did 
find  salt  water,"  and   that   great  ships  seen  there  had  made 
Champlain  believe  "  that  a  passage  might  be  there  to  the  Bay 
of  California,  or  to  some  part  of  the  South  Sea,  opening  a  near 
way  to  China."     It  was  at   this  very  time  that  the  Spanish 
geographers  were  beginning  to  detach  Califoi'nia  from  the  main- 
land, and  to  open  channels  inland  from  the  Pacific,  so  that  sjiec- 
ulative   geographers   found   little   difficulty  in  connecting    the 
French  reports  of  western  waters  approached  by  the  St.  Law- 
rence valley  with  these  supposed  developments  along  the  Pacific 
coast. 

At  this  time,  moreover,  Alexander  was  interested  in  a  politi- 
cal movement  somewhat  ominous  for  New  France.  In 
1621  (September  10),  the  English  king  had  granted  Aieximder'a 
to  him  all  that  territory  between  the  St.  Lawrence 
and  the  sea,  which  lies  east  of  the  St.  Croix  River.  "  To  be 
holden  of  us,  from  our  kingdom  of  Scotland  as  a  part  thereof," 
ran  this  kingly  purpose  to  carve  a  province  of  about  54,000 
square  miles  out  of  disputed  territory.  Alexander  was  thus 
expected  to  colonize,  and  under  the  name  of  New  Scotland 
or  Nova  Scotia  to  hold,  and  govern  as  lieutenant-general,  a 
region  that  had  already  been  included  in  the  French  king's 
grants  to  De  Monts  in  1603.  The  English  patentee  had  not 
been  able  to  start  settlements  when  in  1624  he  issued  the 
tract  to  which  we  have  already  referred,  as  a  means  of  propa- 
gating a  colonizing  spirit.  As  a  further  inducement  to  the 
same  end,  and  to  give  dignity  and  some  financial  standing  to  his 
project,  Alexander  prevailed  upon  King  James,  and  afterwards 
upon  King  Charles,  to  create  an  order  of  tributary  Knights- 
Baronets,  who  should  pay  each  a  thousand  marks  into  the  trea- 
sury of  the  colony,  and  receive  in  return  a  grant  of  land  to 
support  their  dignity,  and  these  baronies  were  to  includo  some 
at  Anticosti,  directly  in  the  approach  to  Canada.  The  rank 
was  further  tokened  in  an  "  o.ange  tawny  silk  ribbon  with  a 
pendent  escutcheon,"  which  they  were  privileged  to  wear.  Sir 
William  speaks  of  this  grant  to  him  as  "the  first  national 


I    -!. 


-yfV. 


( 

vi 


.^M 


m 


.'i 


i;.^ 


>l 


m 


•,  I 


I! 


h 


i.H 


■ ;  'i 


.K  ■  i 


r:vj  :|; 


i'    I  /v 


■:iM 


128 


WAR,    TRADE,  AND  MISSIONS. 


I  -H 


li' 


patent  that  ever  was  clearly  bounded  within  America,  by  par- 
ticular limits  upon  the  earth."  The  patent  had  certainly  a 
distinctive  limitation  which   told  the  French  just  what  they 


ALEXANDER'S  MAP,  1624. 


had  to  encounter,  and  made  the  bounds  of  Acadia  a  bone  of 
contention  between  the  rival  powers  for  many  generations. 

Unfortunately,  Alexander's  scheme  was  embarrassed  by  the 
very  dignity  which  he  secured  for  it.      His  plau  of  manorial 


4  U.  ■  I 


RECOLLECTS  AND  JESUITS. 


129 


lights  in  New  Scotland  was  an  attempt  to  plant  medisevalism 
in  the  new  world.  They  shut  out  the  manly  endeavor  of  self- 
respecting,  though  lowly  owners  of  the  soil,  and  the  absence  of 
such  attributes  in  the  settlers  made  them  in  the  end  the  sport 
of  political  exigencies. 

Ventadour,  the  new  viceroy  of  Canada,  was  under  the  influ- 
ence of  the  Jesuits.     Champlain  had  always  favored  ventadour 
the  Recollects.     The  members  of  this  last  order  had  ^'"^"'"y' 
prospered  under  the  eye  of  the  governor,  and  in  1G24  some 
recruits  from  Gaspe  had  joined  the  little  body.     They 
had  already  created  five  missions,  —  Tadoussac,  Que-  missious, 
bee.   Three  Rivers,  with  others  among  the  Nipissings 
and  Hurons.     They  had,  as  we  have  noted,  raised  the  first  stone 
structure  in  the  colony,  the  church  of  Notre  Dame  des  Anges. 
AVe  have  seen  how  there  is  some  reason  to  believe  that  in  1622 
this  palisaded   edifice   had   successfully   resisted   an   Iroquois 
attack.     Success  had  emboldened  the  fathers,  and  they  had 
petitioned  the  king  to  exclude  the  Calvini&ts  from  the  colony ; 
but  Louis  XIII.  was  not  prepared  for  such  a  step.     It  came  a 
few  years  later,  when  the  strong  spirit  of  Richelieu  willed  it. 

If  the  Recollects  were  in  this  matter  denied  the  aid  of  the 
crown,  there  were  willing  abettors  in  their  schemes,  which  they 
could  engage,  and  so  they  invited  the  Jesuits  to  make  common 
cause  with  them.  On  June  19,  1625,  the  Jesuits,  jgos.  Jesu- 
Charles  Lalemant,  Jean  de  Brebeuf ,  Enem'ond  Masse,  "*  '"^"^^" 
Francois  Charton,  Gilbert  Burel,  and  a  sixth  of  unknown  name, 
appeared  in  Quebec.  Being  denied  hospitality  by  the  civic 
authorities,  they  were  at  once  received  under  the  roof  of  the 
Recollect  monastery,  and  began  to  look  about  to  establish  a 
house  of  their  own.  The  spot  they  selected  was  beyond  the 
St.  Charles,  at  the  confluence  of  the  Lairet,  where  Champlain 
believed  Cartier  to  have  wintered,  and  where  after  ninety  years 
there  were  still  some  traces  of  the  earlier  occupancy.  It  was 
the  1st  of  September,  1625,  when  the  Jesuits  with  due  cere- 
nionv  took  possession  of  the  ground,  and  on  April  6, 

.^-'       ,  /  ,     ,  -  .        ,     .  1      1  m  lC2fi.     Build 

lu2u,  they  found  themselves  in  their  new  abode.     Iwo  anestabUsu- 
days  later,  the  Pere  Brebeuf,  who  had  been  among  the 
Inclians  during  the  winter,  studying  their  manners  and  tongue, 
and  preparing  for  larger  experiences,  rejoined  his  companions. 
The  Jesuits  began  their  labors  amid  dissensions,  which  their 


hM 

I 


n 


^■;  ■  |. 


:..:     rV. 


•  r 


130 


WAR,   TRADE,   AND  MISSIONS. 


>i  '  [' 


coming  liad  created.  The  return  of  Champlain  to  Quebec  in 
1626  did  much  to  smooth  asperities.  A  letter  which  the  Pore 
Charles  Lalemant  sent  to  Paris,  and  which  appeared  in  the 
Jlercnre  Fvan(;ois^  did  not  tell  a  comforting  story. 

Champlain  had  arrived  on  July  5,  1626,  accompanied  by  his 
brother-in-law,  Eustache  Boullc.    lie  found  the  ct)lonv 

Champlain  ,       .  .  „  it  *    "J 

arrives,  only  just  recovcmig  from  the  distresses  of  the  win- 
ter. A  famine  had  threatened  the  settlement,  and  the 
struggling  settlers  had  been  forced  to  send  to  (iasj>i'  for  succor. 
The  persistency  of  their  leaders  had  alone  nuide  the  company 
desist  from  a  purpose  to  abandon  the  place. 

That  eighteen  years  of  occupancy  had  so  little  serycd  to  give 
stability  to  New  France  was  a  fact  forcibly  pressed  ni)on  the 
Ri.i.eiieu'8  spirit  which  was  now  animating  France.  Cardinal 
I'oiiiy.  Kichelieu  had  with  an  evil  eye  marked  out  his  policy, 

and  Canada  was  to  receive  the  impress  of  feudalism.  The 
institutions  of  the  European  past  were  to  be  evolved  amid  the 
American  forests,  and  just  at  a  time  when  there  was  already 
planned  among  the  neighboring  English,  in  the  compact  of  the 
"Mayflower,"  a  departure  from  the  old-world  principles  of 
entail  and  primogeniture  in  the  elevation  of  ecpuil  rights.  The 
English  sympathy  with  the  Huguenots  and  the  pretensions  of 
the  English  king  to  territory  along  the  St.  Lawrence,  as  well 
as  the  nionfjrel  combination  which  was  now  carryin"-  on  the 
trade  of  Canada,  were  not  signs  to  be  received  passively  by  a 
man  like  Richelieu.  The  old  trading  companies  were  swept 
off  the  board,  and  a  new  company,  which  was  conunonly  callotl 
the  Hundi'cd  Associates,  was  promptly  formed.  The 
Associates,  cardinal  gave  it  his  approval  on  April  20,  1627,  in 
camp  before  Rochelle,  the  last  of  the  Huguenot 
strongholds.  On  the  6th  of  May,  1628,  the  Council  of  State 
ratified  the  charter,  and  thenceforth  no  Calvinist  was  to  be 
allowed  to  enter  New  France. 

These  principles  were  hazardous  in  the  struggle  with  the 
Dutch  and  English  for  the  conquest  of  the  continent.  The 
Dutch  West  India  Company  was  planting  along  the  Hudson  a 
sturdy  colony  of  Walloons,  in  sympathy  with  the  Huguenots, 
which  Richelieu  would  expel.  Their  spirit  was  to  live,  while 
the  manorial  rights  of  the  Van  Rensselaers  and  the  rest,  C(un- 
pelling  the  people  to  scatter  dangerously,  sowed  the  evils  that 


l\ 


THE  HUNDRED  ASSOCIATES. 


131 


V  ■ 


boi'  in 
Pore 


iu;uIl'  the  country  fall  easily  in  duo  time  into  English  hands,  by 
which  a  free  tenure  of  the  soil  was  added  to  the  advantages  pos- 
sessed by  these  other  rivals  of  the  French. 

The  royal  articles  of  1627,  creating  the  powers  of  Richelieu's 
company,  —  which  we  may  read  in  the  JMcrcuve  Francois, — 
nave  it  jurisdiction  over  a  territory  extending  from  Florida  — 
wherever  that  may  end,  for  in  defining  bounds  there  was  no  at- 
tempt to  decide  it  —  to  the  arctic  circle  ;  and  east  and  west  from 
Xowfouudland  to  the  great  fresh  lake,  omitting,  for  a  wonder,  to 
extend  it  to  any  salt  water.  Charlevoix  and  most  of  the  writ- 
ers following  him  make  the  grant  to  include  Florida,  but  the 
articles  seem  to  be  plain  that  the  extension  of  the  territory  was 
/■/•(j//i  Flor'.Ia,  which  the  Spaniards  at  that  time  actu- 
ally possessed.  The  conditions  of  this  southern  coun- 
try had  not  indeed  changed  since  the  time  when  Charaplain 
w  rote  of  it  in  the  journal  of  his  West  Indian  voyage,  as "'  one 
of  the  best  lands  that  can  be  desired ;  very  fertile  if  it  were 
cultivated ;  but  the  king  of  Spain  does  not  care  for  it,  because 
there  are  no  mines  of  gold  or  silver."  What  was  of  more  mo- 
ment to  the  French  of  the  north,  there  were  no  furs  there. 

The  principal  Associates  of  the  Company  of  a  Hundred  were 
Parisians,  anl  Richelieu  was  its  constituted  head.  Tiienew 
There  was  at  least  .  quarf^er  of  the  number  to  be  '=°'"P'"'>- 
found  in  Normandy,  and  three  hundred  thousand  livres  had 
been  contributed  to  carry  the  project  on.  The  company  prom- 
ised to  reinforce  the  feeble  colony  by  a  strong  contingent  of 
artisans  and  laborers,  to  be  sent  at  once,  with  all  necessaiy  tools 
and  supplies.  Within  fifteen  years  they  purposed  to  send  over 
four  thousand  other  colonists,  whose  support  for  three  years  was 
to  be  gua)anteed  by  the  Associates.  In  the  spring  of  1628 
their  first  exj^edition  sailed,  consisting  of  four  armed  vessels 
convoying  eighteen  transports.  They  carried  thirty-five  can- 
non to  increase  the  defenses  of  Quebec.  This  fleet,  under  the 
connnand  of  Claude  de  Roquemont,  fell  into  the  hands  of  the 
exasperated  Huguenots  and  their  allies,  or,  as  Parkman  ex- 
presses it,  Roquemont  succumbed  to  "  Huguenots  fighting 
under  English  colors." 

Roquemont  had  sailed  in  April,  but  an  English  fleet  had  got 
the  start  of  him,  for  under  the  pretext  of  relieving  the  Hugue- 
nots at  Rochelle,  the  English  government  had  declared  war 


;i-:  ij 


\  ■   - 


.  t  i"-' 


I;     ■ 

■ 

^  > 

■' 

•/: 

■  *l 

■t-    : 

!■' 

'■i  i 

,  ! ;    , 

•  ■■  \ 

i-    ' 

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''* 

;,     1             \ 

\.-\ 

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y 

■■'1 
,         1 

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(■      '         i 

r.  :i 


132 


WAR,    77vM/)K,  AND  MISSIONS. 


against  France.  So  the  occasion  was  seized  to  dispatch  an  ar- 
EnRiami  mamcnt  against  Quebec.  Tlie  instigator  of  the  move- 
a°tar,'""^^  mcnt  sceuis  to  have  been  a  French  Calvinist,  Michel, 
"'-*•  but  the  men  who  gave  tlie  enterprise  character  were 

Sir  William  Alexandc"  and  a  Derbyshire  gentleman,  Gervase 
Kirke.  Alexander  naturally  looked  upon  the  lordly  territorial 
claims  of  Kicl.jlieu  as  aimed  in  part  at  his  own  colony  of  New 
Scotland.  Kirke,  who  had  lived  awhile  in  Dieppe  and  had 
married  a  French  woman,  knew  what  a  task  was  bo- 
fore  him.  The  king  supplied  letters  of  marque,  and 
Kirke's  eldest  son,  David,  was  made  admiral  of  the  fleet,  with 
two  other  sons  in  subordinate  commands.  This  fleet  was  far 
enough  ahead  of  Koquemont  to  be  able  to  land  a  Scotch  colony 
in  the  territory  of  Sir  William  Alexander,  and  to  sweep  the  St. 
Lawrence  of  all  the  French  afloat,  before  Roquemont  was  ex- 
pected.    After  this  it  lay  in  wait  for  its  prey  at  Tadoussac. 


Kirke'a 
tieet. 


■m'l 


On  July  0,  two  little  towers  of  the  fort  in  Quebec  fell  down, 
and  in  the  anxious  state  of  the  gari'ison  the  sign  seemed  omi- 
nous. On  the  same  day  some  half -famished  men  were  scanning 
the  distant  reach  of  the  river  to  catch  sight  of  Roquemont  with 
his  expected  succor.  While  their  hopes  were  proving  vain,  two 
refugees  from  Capo  TournKnito  emerged  from  the  woods  beyond 
the  St.  Charles,  and  brought  word  that  some  Indians  had  come 
to  that  post  from  behnv,  who  reported  large  ships  at  Tadoussac. 
Shortly  after,  a  canoe  came  bringing  the  wounded  commander 
of  the  French  post  at  Cape  Tourmente.  He  said  that  he  had 
escaped  a  party  which  had  been  set  ashore  from  some  strange 
ships  to  assail  that  fort,  The  next  day,  some  Basque  fisherm«iu 
l)ulled  in  under  the  cliff  at  Quebec,  and  delivered  a  message 
from  the  English  admiral,  which  they  had  undertaken  to  deliver 
to  Chami)lain.  It  was  a  courteous  demand  from 
laoned  to      Kirko  for  the  surrender  of  Quebec.     Champlain  had 

SUIT   juer.  ,  .,  *"  ir 

neither  provisions  nor  powder  adequate  to  a  defense, 
but  he  answered  as  if  he  had,  and  the  messengers  rowed  back 
with  a  reply  as  courteous  as  Kirke's  summons,  and  quite  as 
confident.  This  show  of  firmness  had  its  effect,  and  Champlain 
was  given  a  respite,  not,  however,  free  from  suspense. 

Meanwhile  Roquemont  with  his  fleet  had  advanced  up  the 
river  almost  to  Tadoussac,  and  had  dispatched  ahead  a  boat  to 


!'!i!' 


CAPTURE   OF  QUEBEC. 


188 


warn  Champlain  of  his  coming.  This  messenger,  approaching 
Tadoussac,  saw  the  English  ships  glide  out  of  the  Sagiienay 
and  turn  down  the  St.  Lawrence.  lie  found  cover  for  his  boat 
on  the  bank,  and  Kirke's  ships  passed  withoiit  discovering  him. 
TJiey  were  scarcely  out  of  sight,  when  reverberations  of  cannon 
told  him  that  Kirke  and  Roquemont  had  grappled  in  a  fight. 
Speeding  on  to  Quebec,  the  dismayed  messenger  carried  the 
news  to  Champlain.  The  governor  remained  in  a  trying  state 
of  uncertainty  till  some  Indians  brought  him  word  that  the  fight 
had  ended  in  disaster  to  the  French  fleet. 

Kirke  indeed  had  captured  such  of  the  ships  as  he  did  not 
sink,  and,  finding  both  glory  and  booty  in  the  victory, 
he  gave  up  Quebec,  and  sailed  for  England  with  the  the  Frenth 
prizes. 

The  winter  of  1628-29  was  a  weary  and  disheartening  one 
for  Champlain.  There  was  little  to  eat,  and  by  spring  JC28-29. 
this  little  became  nothing.  The  only  hope  of  sustain-  ^i"'^"^'"'- 
ing  life  was  in  digging  roots  and  gathering  acorns.  When  even 
these  failed,  the  colonists  clung  to  a  hope  of  seizing,  if  they 
could,  one  of  the  palisaded  granaries  of  the  Iroquois.  Here 
they  could  perhaps  defend  themselves  till  relief  came.  !Most 
of  the  sufferers  stood  fast  by  their  settlement ;  a  few  sought 
asylums  among  the  Indians. 

jSIeanwhile  Champlain  was  without  any  tidings  of  the  effect 
in  Europe  of  Kirke's  enterprise.  It  had  indeed  excited  a  new 
cupidity  among  the  English  trading  Jidventurers.  In  Febru- 
ary, 1029,  a  royal  patent  was  made  out  for  Sir  William  Alex- 
ander, to  constitute  him  the  "  sole  trader  "  of  the  St.  Lawrence 
valley,  to  authorize  him  to  settle  a  plantation  anywhere  along 
tlie  river  from  below  Tadoussac  to  Quebec,  to  confiscate  the 
l)roperty  of  interlopers,  and  o  seize  French  or  Spanisli  ships, 
and  drive  off  the  French  that  might  be  found  on  the  banks. 

One  morning  in  July,  lOfZO,  an  Indian  saw  some  masts  above 
tlie  trees  on  the  island     .    Orleans.     Other  savages  ,   „ 

.  1029,  July. 

came  in  and  repoi-ted  tliat  they  had  seen  English  ships  Quebec  sur- 
moving  up  the  channel.     Champlain  could  doubt  no 
longer  that  the  enemy  had  returned.     Before  long,  the  hostile 
vessels  glided  into  the  basin,  and  looked  like  cockboats  as  the 
governor  with  a  little  squad  of  pallid  and  ragged  adherents 
looked  down  upon  them  from  the  ramparts  of  the  feeble  fort. 


'■■      C  -  .  i; 

;  t 


l"<i 


'»■    !  11' 


If 


134 


WAR,   TRADE,  AND  MISSIONS. 


If 


iiiill 


■■■  'Ml 


Ifl'lil 


iliiilii: 


They  saw  a  boat  with  a  white  flag  row  to  the  Htraiul.  Tho 
officer  bore  a  new  demand  for  surrender.  Chainphiin  asked  for 
a  fortnight  to  consider  it ;  but  an  immediate  eompliance  was 
insisted  on.  Kirke  was  not  unreasonable  in  his  terms.  He 
offered  honorable  privileges,  and  engaged  to  t /ansport  all  who 
desired  it  to  Europe.  There  was  no  alternative,  uul  the  demand 
was  met.  The  next  day,  the  red  flag  of  England  floated  from 
Cape  Diamond.  The  English  admiral  had  sent  his  brothers  to 
arrange  for  the  capitulation,  while  he  remained  at  Tailoussac. 
Under  these  commanders,  the  troops  which  had  come  in  the 
ships  were  landed,  and  quartered  in  casemate  and  barrailc. 
Provisions  were  at  once  put  ashore,  and  tho  storehouses  were 
filled  with  unwonted  supplies.  Thirteen  of  the  French  colonists, 
looking  perhaps  on  the  change  as  a  delivei'ance,  as  Charlevoix 
intimates,  were  induced  to  live  under  tho  English  rule.  Of 
these  there  were  seven  who  were  of  importance  to  tho  victors, 
because  of  their  woodcraft  and  experience  with  tho  Indians. 

Those  v;ho  preferred  to  leave  embarked  with  Champlain  on 
one  of  the  English  ships,  and  on  Jidy  24  started  for  Tadoussac. 
cimnipiain  Tliis  vcsscl  ruu  ahead  of  her  consorts,  and  while  thus 
embarks.  unsupported  slic  met  a  French  ship  iu>dor  Emeric  de 
Caen.  This  vessel  had  slipped  by  Tadoussac  uunoticed.  The 
hostile  crafts  cleared  for  action,  and  it  seemed  for  a  while  that 
De  Caen  would  avenge  the  fall  of  Quebec  ;  but  Hvitish  i)luck 
prevailed,  and  the  Frenchman  struck  his  colors.  The  prize  was 
taken  to  Tadoussac,  where  on  August  19  the  tenns  of  the  sur- 
render were  ratified  by  the  English  admiral. 

It  seemed  now  to  one  in  Quebec  as  if  the  P^nglish  domination 
of  North  America  was  likely  to  be  assured,  and  not  to  be  left,  as 
was  the  case,  to  the  uncertainties  of  a  hundred  and  thirty  years 
yet  to  come.  Lord  Baltimore  at  Avalon,  in  Newfoundland,  had 
indeed  seen  a  sorry  time  with  his  colony  in  the  face  of  the  French, 
to  say  nothing  of  English  enemies,  and  he  had  just  carried  his 
people  to  the  Chesapeake.  Here  he  fomul  that  the  chartered 
rights  of  the  Virginia  company,  with  all  the  extensions  to  a  su])- 
posable  western  ocean,  had  been  surrendered  to  the  crown,  and 
under  a  royal  governor,  the  most  ancient  of  tho  English  settle- 
ments was  to  gather  new  vigor,  a  part  of  which  he  was  to  feel. 
In  the  region  which  lay  towards  the  French,  and  had  been  called 
North  Virginia,  but   which,  since  Captain  John  Smith    had 


I  I 


■  ■■ 


THE   ENGLISH  COLONIES. 


135 


Tho 


(lescril)t'cl  the  country,  was  more  eominonly  known  as  New  Eng- 
land, there  was  an  ominous  movenu'nt.  In  March,  1G29,  while 
Champlain  and  his  stricken  followers  were  dragging  their 
emaciated  bodies  into  the  sun  on  the  rock  at  (Quebec,  Charles 
the  First  was  confirming  the  Massachusetts  charter,  as  granted 
by  the  compcany  at  Plymouth  in  Devon,  which  since  1020  had 
claimed  to  48°  north  latitude.  In  the  interpretation  which  the 
colonists  gave  to  the  new  charter,  it  carried  its  northern  limits 
above  the  source  of  the  Merrimac,  well  within  a  region  which 
the  French  had  claimed.  The  charter  gave  also  to  the  grant  an 
indefinite  extension  to  the  western  sea,  whose  shores  botli  French 
and  English  were  anxious  to  reach.  Smith  had  complained  tliat 
with  all  his  praises  of  the  New  England  soil,  it  had  hardly  lured 
the  emigrant  like  the  more  fertile  south.  But  the  year  in  which 
Quebec  was  lost  to  the  French  was  the  same  in  which  Puritan- 
ism claimed  New  England.  The  party  which  Endicott  brought 
to  Salem  in  1629,  with  instruction  to  buy  the  land  of  the 
natives,  were  the  precursors  of  a  race  unequaled  as  colonists. 
They  differed  from  the  French  in  the  north  in  many  respects, 
but  in  none  more  potently  than  in  bringing  to  these  xVmerican 
wilds  the  life  of  families.  The  long  struggle  they  sustained 
along  the  New  England  frontiers  with  the  horrors  of  savage  war 
showed  how  stubbornly  they  coidd  cling  to  their  ideal. 

A  few  days  before  the  English  fleet  which  bore  Champlain 
was  descried  from  the  Hoe  at  Plymouth,  the  council  for  New 
England,  sitting  in  that  town,  made  a  grant  to  Gorges  and 
Mason,  which  assured  the  control  of  the  country  on  "  the  Iro- 
quois lakes  "  to  their  associates  of  the  Laconia  company.  This, 
with  all  its  mistaken  geography,  would  have  meant  to  the  English 
in  Quebec,  had  they  known  it,  a  close  contiguity  to  their  con- 
quered post.  Rut  all  visions  of  a  compacted  English  territory 
were  soon  dispelled. 


m 


1.1 


lit 


/ 


I  '■ 


f ' 


"n 


I  .,■ : 


CHAPTER  VII. 

QUEBEC    RESTORED.      EXPLOUATIONS   OF  NICOLET.      DEATH 

OF   ClIAMPLAIN. 

1630-1635. 

Ox  the  return  of  the  English  fleet  to  Plymouth,  November  20, 
Nov.  JO,  1029,  it  was  discovered  that  before  Quebec  had  capitii- 
'^'•''*'  latcd,  a  treaty  of  peace  between  England  and  Franco 

had  been  signed  on  April  23.  On  November  29,  Champlain 
was  in  London,  endeavoring  with  the  aid  of  the  French  ambas- 
sador to  arrange  ior  the  restitution  of  the  untimely  conquest ; 
but  there  were  complications  to  be  removed.  On  the  preced- 
ing 2d  of  February,  the  English  king,  in  anticipation  of  the 
Aiexttiuier'a  couqucst  of  Canada,  luul  granted,  as  we  have  seen,  to 
iharter.  gj^.  ^v'illiam  Alexander,  a  charter  of  "  the  county  and 
lordshi])  of  Canada  in  America."  This  document  spoke  of  the 
"  expected  revealing  and  discovery  of  a  way  or  passage  to  those 
seas  which  lie  upon  America  on  the  west,  commonly  called  the 
South  Sea,  from  which  the  head  or  source  of  that  great  river  or 
gulf  of  Canada,  or  some  river  flowing  into  it,  is  deemed  to  be  not 
far  distant."  The  charter  granted  jurisdiction  over  the  islands 
in  and  over  fifty  leagues  of  territory  on  each  side  of  this  river, 
"  up  to  the  source  thereof,  wheresoever  it  be,  or  to  the  lake 
whence  it  flows,  which  is  thought  to  be  towards  the  Gulf  of 
California,  called  by  some  the  Vermilion  Sea."  This  also  in- 
cluded all  the  lands  adjacent  to  the  passage  from  the  source  of 
the  river  to  the  Gulf  of  California,  —  "  whether  they  be  found  a 
j)art  of  the  continent  or  main  land  or  an  island  (as  it  is  tliought 
they  are)  which  is  commonly  called  by  the  name  of  California, 
—  which  are  not  really  aiid  actually  possessed  by  others,  our 
subjects,  or  the  subjects  of  any  other  Christian,  prince  or  consti- 
tuted orders  in  alliance  and  friendship  with  us." 

But  all  this  was  a  short-lived  or  rather  premature  colonial 


V 


i\ 


DIl'LOMACY. 


I'M 


gnmdi'ur.  Not  many  wecka  later,  it  wjis  aj^roetl,  in  ij^noranco 
of  what  was  happening  on  the  St.  Lawrence,  that  all  eonqnest 
made  hy  either  Knglish  or  Kreneh  after  April  24,  lU'JU,  should 
1)0  restored  to  the  condition  existing  before  sneh  cap-  cwm.utobe 
tare.  It  was  because  of  this  agreement  that  Cham-  ""'"""• 
plain  was  now  making  his  protestations  in  London. 

Alexander  and  the  Kirkes,  with  all  who  luwl  ventured  their 
money  on  the  success  of  the  (Quebec  expedition,  were  not  in 
i;ood  humor  when  they  saw  that  the  lordship  of  Canada,  and 
all  the  royal  i)rotestations  which  had  eneourageil  them,  wero 
likely  to  vanish  in  thin  air.  These  «lisappointed  gentlemen  had 
influence  enough  to  protract  the  negotiations  for  the  restitution, 
and  when  Champlain  at  last  can»o  to  Paris,  by  the  end  of  De- 
cember, the  issue  was  not  reached,  nor  did  the  negotiations  move 
rapidly  during  the  following  year  ( l(5liO).  Alexander 
and  his  friends  lost  no  occasion  to  urge  that  the 
French  had  always  been  intruders  within  the  limits  of  New 
Scotland.  The  Knglish  king,  never  willing  to  acknowledge  tho 
French  rights  to  Canada,  was  niaking  up  his  mind  to  such  a 
qualified  restitution  as  would  not  prejudice  the  >.uglish  claim 
to  the  country. 

King  Charles  had  married,  in  lt>2'),  a  sister  of  Louis  XIIL, 
and  only  a  part  of  tho  dower  agreed  umn  had  as  yet 

J        I  o  I  J         iGiil.    The 

been  paid  to  him.    It  was  a  good  time  now  to  den>!uul  on. ..irH 

tlowfii* 

the  rest.    On  Juno  12,  1G31,  he  informed  his  ambas- 
sador in  Paris  that  if  the  French  court  did  not  pay  this  deficit 
there  would  be  no  restitution  of  Port  Koyal  and  Quebec.    Here 
was  substantial  ground  for  diplomacy,  and  we  can  read  tho  cor- 
respondence in  the  report  of  the  C^madian  archivist  for  1874. 
The  ontcome  was  the  treaty  of  St.  (Jermain-en-Laye, 
on  March  29, 1632.     The  agreement  cndwdied  in  this  st.  Genuaiii- 
treaty  was  very  likely  hastened  by  the  fact  that  De 
Razilly,  a  leading   member  of   the    Hundred  Associates,  was 
known  to  be  fitting  out  a  fleet,  which  might  be  intended  to 
wrest  from  the   English  by  force  tho  object  of  the  lingering 
negotiations. 

The  treaty  which  Charles  thus  concluded  was  easily  advanced 
by  his  pressing  need  of  money,  and  the  promise  of  the  remain- 
ing dower.  The  king's  letter,  preserved  in  the  Ilarleyan  col- 
lection, and  only  printed  by  Mr.   lirynmer  of   tho  Canadian 


rx 


r-\m 


m 


i 


!■    i ' .' 


;l:i, 


•>  ( 


r.    : 


:'^' 


138 


QUEBEC  RESTORED. 


I     u 


it     V 


*T 


archives,  in  1889,  has  made  this  manifest.  The  terms  for 
restitution  of  the  French  posts  in  Canada  bore  hard  on  tliose 
faithful  subjects  who  had  used  his  letters  of  marque  to  add  to 
his  dominions,  and  who  saw  their  conquests  given  up  for  his 
royal  necessities.  Accordingly,  the  satisfied  monarch  was  quite 
willing  to  send  ten  thousand  pounds  sterling  to  Alexander  as  a 
sop,  while  he  ordered  the  evacuation  by  Alexander's  son  of  the 
region  in  the  vicinity  of  Port  Royal,  where  Charles  La  Tour 
had  earlier  been  installed  as  a  representative  of  French  in- 
terests. Charles  was  at  the  same  time  not  inclined  to  throw  too 
much  doubt  on  the  numerous  charters  which  under  his  royal 
signature  had  covered  all  the  region  in  dispute,  and  with  char- 
acteristic duplicity  professed  to  his  subjects  that  he  intended  to 
carry  on  the  plantation  of  New  Scotland  by  the  creation  of  more 
baronets.  Further  than  this,  the  rights  of  the  Council  of  Plym- 
outh, established  in  1620,  g'^ing  as  high  as  48°  north  latitude, 
and  the  patents  given  to  L^e  Monts  in  1603,  still  remained  to 
keep  alive  a  conflict  of  jui-isdiction.  The  dispute  was  not  finally 
settled  till  Wolfe  perished  on  the  Plains  of  Abraham. 

Charles  was  nevertheless  quite  ready  to  fulfill  the  new  obli- 
gations of  the  treaty,  and  so  the  restitution  of  Quebec  soon  fol- 
lowed. As  the  De  Caens  had  suffered  from  the  inability  of  the 
Kraerio  de  French  government  to  protect  them  while  at  Quebec, 
to  oJilbec,  Emeric  de  Cueu  was  sent  out  to  receive  the  surrender. 
^^'^'  At  the  same  time  he  was  allowed  a  year's  privilege  of 

trade,  to  recoup  himself  in  his  barter  for  furs.  In  July,  1632, 
the  French  readied  Quebec.  They  found  the  English  occu- 
jmnts  had  passed  the  period  of  their  possession  not  without 
tribulations.  During  the  first  winter,  forty  of  the  ninety  men 
wlio  held  the  jilace  had  died.  Those  who  ruled  them  had  no 
vigor  to  prevent  illegal  trading  on  the  river,  and  the  Basques 
had  plied  their  traffic  with  small  hindrance.  During  the  second 
sunniier,  they  had  received  some  recruits,  and  there  were  about 
seventy  English  in  the  town  when  De  Caen,  on  July  13, 
received  its  surrender.  Tlit;  French  accounts  say  that 
the  English  commander  sailed  down  the  river  with  his 
ships  heavily  laden  with  furs.  Some  of  the  hatchets  whieli 
Kirke  had  used  in  the  barter  for  skins  were  recognized  two  years 
later  by  Henry  Fleet  among  the  tribes  of  the  Potomac. 

Richelieu  had  in  mind  to  control,  as  his  wont  was  in  most 


July. 

Quebec  siir 
rendered. 


THb:  JESUITS. 


139 


things,  the  religious  missions  in  Canada.  lie  tried  first  to  in- 
duce the  Capuchins  to  take  charge  of  them,  but  for 
some  reason  that  order  found  its  way  to  Acadia  instead. 
The  Recollects  had  appealed  to  Home  to  have  a  bishop  in 
Canada,  which  was  not  a  way  to  ingratiate  their  order  with 
liichelieu,  and  in  a  spirit  both  of  defiance  and  defense  that  min- 
ister sent  the  Jesuits  instead.  This  exclusion  of  the  Recollects 
has  sometimes  been  said  to  have  been  the  result  of  Jesuit 
intrigue.  At  all  events,  on  April  18, 1G32,  two  Jesuit  jcso.  Jesuits 
fathers,  Le  Jeune  and  De  Noiie,  sailed  from  Havre  for  ""^^• 
Quebec.  Some  weeks  later,  at  Tadoussac,  Le  Jeune  saw  for 
the  first  time,  as  they  came  on  board  the  ship,  some  of  the  uncouth 
and  filthy  creatures  whose  interests,  as  he  understood  them, 
were  to  fill  so  large  a  part  of  his  devoted  life.  A  heedless  cru- 
elty was  at  once  mated  in  his  mind  with  their  squalor,  for  he 
labored  in  vain  to  induce  them  a  few  days  later  to  spare  some 
Iroquois  prisoners  from  the  horrors  of  the  stake.  The  Jesuits 
perhaps  realized  how  fit  an  introductory  experience  all  this 
was  to  the  work  they  had  come  to  do.  Shortly  afterwards,  we 
find  the  t'.A'^o  in-iests  restoring  the  dilapidated  mission  house  on 
the  bank  of  the  St.  Charles.  The  i)olicy  of  the  Jesuits  was 
reasonable,  and  it  was  not  savage.  "  The  power  of  the  priest 
established,"  says  Parkman,  ''that  of  the  temporal  ruler  was 
secure.  .  .  .  Spanii-.a  civilization  crushed  the  Indiaii,  P^nglish 
civilization  scorned  and  neglected  him ;  French  civilization 
embraced  and  cherished  hitn." 

On  August  28, 1G32,  Le  Jeune  wrote  to  the  provincial  of  his 
order  in  France  detailing  his  experiences.  It  was  the  j^^,,,-,  jj^;,,. 
earliest  of  that  series  of  wonderful  letters,  known  '""'*" 
as  tlie  Jesuit  lielations.  These  reports  for  forty  years  and 
move  supplied  the  most  that  was  known  of  life  in  the  Canadian 
wilds  to  the  great  mass  of  French  readers.  Charlevoix  speaks 
of  the  avidity  with  which  they  were  read,  and  Parkman  praises 
the  good  faith  of  their  authors,  —  a  Protestant  recognition  of 
good  intent  that  their  contemporary  rivals  in  other  ecclesias- 
tical orders  did  not  accord.  There  are  few  allusions  to  these 
narratives  in  the  writers  of  their  day,  tliough  Creuxius  used 
them  in  writing  his  account  of  Canada  in  16G4,  as  Chuulmer 
had  done  in  his  JVonceau  Month'  in  1050. 

Although  the  final  edition  of  Champlain's  uan-ativcs  bears  the 


'4    ^. 


11 


-s     ,1 

^ 

il 

;  1 

:  1 

\ 

I       ( 


'I,-; 


,1 


140 


QUEBEC  RESTORED. 


h 


r- 


m4. 


iil 


■illi:!*:' 


i|t»!. 


-:< 


CHAMPLAIN'S  LAST  BOOK. 


141 


'^ 


^ 


m 


hi 


Champlain'a 
final  edition, 
1G32-33. 


his 


pre- 


date of  1632,  there  are  some  reasons  to  think  that  it  was  really 
issued  the  following  year  (1633),  after  Champlain  had 
returned  to  Quebec.  This  book,  in  which  several 
Paris  publishers  seem  to  have  been  conjointly  inter- 
ested, contains  in  the  first  part  a  condensation  of 
vious  publications,  and  in  the  second  a  continuation  of  his 
experiences  from  1620  to  1631.  The  last  year's  doings  were 
apparently  not  written  by  Champlain  himself.  Indeed,  it  is 
manifest  to  more  careful  critics  that  the  volume,  including  its 
map,  failed  to  receive  Champlain's  personal  supervision,  and 
was  prepared  for  the  press  by  another  hand.     Some  have  been 


4sH 

HONDIUS,  1G3J. 

led  to  believe  that  a  Jesuit  father  —  possibly  one  who  had  been 
in  Canada  —  edited  the  book  in  the  interests  of  his  own  order, 
and  issued  it,  notwithstanding  the  date  on  the  title,  after  Cham- 
plain had  departed  from  France  in  March,  1633.  These  critics 
rely  upon  a  difference  in  style  in  what  they  claim  are  Jesuit 
interpolations,  and  they  point  to  inaccuracies  and  obscurities 
which  could  not  have  come  from  one  so  well  informed  as  Cham- 
jilain.  The  obscuration  of  the  Kecollects,  which  the  book 
shows,  is  something,  too,  in  such  judgments,  that  could  not 
have  originated  with  Champlain.  This  edition,  says  the  mod- 
ern historian,  Kingsford,  "  was  an  engine  to  influence  opinion, 
so  that  Canada,  restored  to  France,  should  be  given  over  en- 


km 


p. 

1  :■■■■-     -' 

1  '    '  ■! 

N    ''\ 

if: 

'  ■   (' 

!       I 

;  -t; 


!    i 


,     ! 


V  I:. 
:  ■! 

i 


142 


QUEBEC  RESTORED. 


,H 


i   'i 


CnrU'Je  la  ticuuclie/rjnce.i3u,;menUe  depuir  la 
airniercferuant  a  la  nnui^nden  fiuclc  enjin  i^ay 
Menjitujjiu- 1{  r  dr  Chamjildin  ZimtMnr pour  URsy^ 
fn  iu  AQnnrjQiiul  ticj)HiS  Ion  i  603  juf^^uct  cnliiMwe  ^ 
i6xy  a  drfcjiuurt plufuciirf  cclu},  tcyrej,  /liiV.  nuuyia, 

djc  wit  en  fcJ  reitUunJ  ijotl  j  f^u,.r  Jmjrrnns'fn  i6^^. 
ou  life  uQtt  ctut  mur^ue    P  cedent  SaittaUont 


~   "  '  ■  ■■■■  ^m^^^—  A 


THl;  (;UEAT   LAKKi*, 


CHAMPLAIN'S  GREAT  MAP. 


143 


ISi'  CUAlll'LAlX,  lliljli. 


I;  M 

11  M 


I  :l  ' 


i  ■•  I  ■) 


"J 


i       I    « 


i  t 


I 

i    ' 
I    \ 

1 


^^ } 


144 


QUEBEC  RESTORED. 


:«5 


^^1 


Niagara. 


tirely  to  the  Jesuits."  In  most  copies  a  certain  passage  wliicli 
is  thought  to  reflect  on  Richelieu,  the  Jesuits'  patron,  is  can- 
celed. 

In  the  large  map  there  is  perhaps  some,  hut  less  reason  to 
suspect  an  alien  hand.  AVe  get  from  it  the  first  cartographical 
intimation  of  a  great  lake  beyond  the  Met'  Ihtuvv.  In  an 
explanatory  legend  Champlain  says  that  the  Saut  du  (laston, 
commemorating  a  brother  of  Louis  XIII.,  was  near  two  leagues 
in  width,  —  it  represents  the  present  Sault  Ste.  Marie,  —  with 
its  waters  coming, from  a  very  large  lake  beyond;  and  in  the 
map  we  find  its  western  extension  cut  off  by  the  margin  of  the 
charapiain's  slicct,  —  a  Convenient  limitation  to  the  vague  know- 
1632  map.  ledge  which  was  then  current.  It  will  be  observed 
that  we  get  in  the  stream  which  enters  Lake  Ontario  at  the 
west  end  the  first  fairly  accurate  location  of  the  Niagara  cata- 
racts. Champlain  never  comprehended  the  magnitude 
of  these  falls  any  more  than  Cartier  did  when  he 
seems  to  have  heard  of  them,  a  hundred  years  before.  Sanson, 
when  he  published  his  map  in  1656,  represented  the  conception 
of  Champlain  ;  but  we  get  no  particular  description  of  the  cat- 
aract till  we  find  one,  drawn  from  hearsay,  however,  as  we  shall 
see  in  Galinee's  journal,  when  this  priest  accompanied  La  Salle 
along  Lake  Ontario  in  1669.  This  stream,  which  shows  the 
falls  near  its  outlet  in  Ontario,  comes  from  Lake  Huron  through 
a  I'egion  which  with  better  knowledge  is  made  the  basin  of  liake 
Erie.  Very  curiously,  there  seems  to  be  the  beginning  of  the 
Straits  of  Mackinaw,  with  its  island,  nearly  in  the  proper  i)hu'e, 
while  the  inlet  which  stands  for  Green  Bay,  amid  the  country 
of  the  Puants,  is  thrown  over  to  the  northern  side  of  Huron. 

Champlain,  on  returning  to  his  Canadian  government,  had 

borne  with  him  a  new  commission,  representing  all  the  i)restigo 

with  which  Richelieu  and  his  Hundred  Associates  could  clothe 

their    representative.      He   sailed   from    Dioni)c   on 

1033.  Cham* 

plain  in  jMarch  23,  1633,  and  on  the  23d  of  May  the  morn- 
ing gun  at  the  fort  on  Cape  Diamond  boomed  a  wel- 
come to  the  restored  governor.  The  salvo,  '^'rred  many  an 
echo,  but  none  in  nature  was  more  responsive  .m  that  in  the 
heart  of  Le  Jeune,  when  his  attention  was  fir  u.  rested  by  the 
sound  as  ho  was  stirring  with  the  early  du  les  of  tho  day  at 


JAMES'S  MAP. 


145 


the  Notre  Dame  des  Anges.  He  knew  that  it  meant  a  friend 
had  come  to  take  command  in  place  of  a  Huguenot.  Perhaps  he 
did  not  know  that  in  the  train  of  the  returned  governor  came 


Jemiita. 


men  of  his  own  order;  but  it  was  not  long-  before  he  found  the 
Jesuit  missions  strengthened  in  the  coming  of  Brebeuf, 
^lasse,  Daniel,  and  Davost. 

liut  it  was  in  his  civil  rule  that  Champlain  had  most  to  fear. 
The  English,  thinking  to  improve  their  trade  in  the  gulf,  mani- 
fested a  purpose  to  advance  to  Tadoussac  and  begin  a  compe- 


■   I    , 

i.      I.  , 


146 


QUEBEC  RESTORED. 


m  I 


il 


i 


k^ 


u,\ 


tition  with  the  French  for  the  native  trade.     In  May,  1633, 
representatives  of  the  Canadian  tribes  ast..  iibled  at 

I  coo     IhfAV 

Indian  coiin-  Quebec  to  sit  with  Champlain  round  the  council  6re. 
The  French  governor  urged  liis  allies  to  repel  the 
advances  of  the  English.  An  Indian  from  Three  Rivers,  Capi- 
tanal,  impressed  the  listening  Jesuits  with  oratorical  powers 
that  they  had  not  associated  with  the  native  tongue.  Cham- 
plain  in  reply  was  allured  into  picturing  that  good  time  when 
the  French  and  the  Indians  should  be  one,  giving  and  taking 
in  marriage.  If  such  a  consummation  were  possible,  Champlain 
was  aware  that  much  nuist  be  done  to  hedge  the  little  colony 
about,  so  that  such  feelings  of  mutual  trust  might  grow.  A 
post  must  be  established  somewhere  below  on  the  river  to 
prevent  the  English  coming  up  and  the  Indians  going  down. 
A  fort  must  be  built  at  Three  Rivers,  strong  enough  to  check 
the  raids  of  the  Iroquois ;  and  a  light  troop  of  three  hundred 
French  soldiers  needed  to  bo  kept  ready  for  quick  movement 
along  the  river.  Champlaiu's  letter  of  August  15,  1633, 
Ritiieiieu  Wooing  thcsc  mcasurcs  upon  Richelieu,  produced  little 
apathetic,  effect.  The  self-reliant  governor  soon  became  con- 
vinced that  he  had  not  much  more  to  hope  from  the  new  com- 
pany than  he  had  experienced  from  the  old.  A  year  later,  he 
renewed  the  representations,  but  with  no  better  result. 

It  is  not  probable  that  Champlain  was  aware  of  the  move- 
ments which  the  English  were  making  from  the  Atlantic  side, 
or  he  would  have  been  even  more  solicitous  of  succor  from 
France.  The  Indians  had  impressed  on  the  minds  of  the  Eng- 
lish, as  they  had  done  upon  the  French,  the  same  faith  in  a 
great  interior  basin  of  water.  Captain  Thomas  Young,  in 
1633,  sailing  up  the  Delaware,  where  the  Swedes  were  conduct- 
ing a  lucrative  fur  trade,  speaks  of  that  "  Mediterranean  Sea, 
which  the  Indian  relateth  to  be  four  days'  journey  beyond  the 
mountain."  Young  had  resolved  to  find  it.  He  expected  first 
to  reach  a  smaller  lake,  connected  with  the  larger  by  a  strait. 
The  rapids  of  the  Delaware  chocked  his  progress.  He  now 
desisted  for  the  season,  with  the  expectation ,  of  building  a  ves- 
sel above  the  falls  during  the  following  year.  He  supposed 
that,  setting  out  from  such  new  point,  he  woiUd  still  have  a  voy- 
age of  a  hundred  and  fifty  or  two  hundred  leagues  to  overcome. 
He  apparently  harbored  the  same  notion  as  prevailed  in  Can- 


iit^ 


i 


»g 


ENGLISH  AND  FRENCH. 


147 


ada,  that  this  intermediate  lake  would,  when  reached,  disclose 
passages  both  to  the  North  and  to  the  South  Sea,  and  guppogej  i,,. 
in  this  event  the  conflict  of  rivalry  could  not  be  far  *'"''°'  ''*''"• 
off.  Two  years  later,  an  English  edition  of  the  great  Mercator- 
Hondius  Atlas  shows  this  great  interior  water  lying  west  of 
Ontario. 

In  June,  1634,  a  fleet  arrived  at  Quebec,  and  in  it  came 
Father  Buteux  and  two  other  priests.  The  whole  jcat.  jesu- 
population  of  Canada  at  this  time  was  scarcely  more  """"v"- 
than  sixty  souls,  and  of  this  number  only  two  households  could 
be  said  to  have  fastened  themselves  on  the  soil.  In  fact,  all 
results  of  consequence  in  the  colony's  life  could  be  traced  to 
the  summer  traffic  in  furs,  and  development  stopped  with  that. 

The  neighboring  English  and  Dutch  were  pursuing  the 
same  trade.  Half  the  people  in  Albany  lived  by  it.  The  skins 
came  from  New  England  as  well  as  from  the  Iroquois  and  be- 
yond, and  large  shipments  were  made  to  Holland  from  Man- 
hattan. But  there  was  this  difference,  that  these  people  were 
generally  becoming  a  product  of  the  soil,  and  were  rapidly  in- 
creasing, particularly  along  the  New  England  coast.  There 
were  at  this  time  near  four  thousand  English  settled  about 
Massachusetts  Bay,  and  the  great  immigration  was  begun  which 
before  1640  was  to  bring  something  like  twelve  thousand  colo- 
nists to  the  country.     The  people  founded  a  college, 

•^       ,  *       ^  .  .  "         French  and 

and  began  to  build  ships,  and  were  trading  m  the  re-  EnRiish  coi- 
moter  inlets,  and  bringing  wheat  from  Virginia.  The 
little  colony  of  New  Plymouth  were  supporting  a  trading- 
post  on  the  Kennebec,  close  up  to  the  divide  which  separated 
them  from  the  French,  and  were  maintaining  it  against  French 
privateers,  not  always  successfully.  All  this  meant  with  such 
a  people  permanence  and  colonial  growth.  Though  there  was 
some  wildness  in  contemporary  opinions  among  the  English  as 
to  the  westward  geography  which  they  were  slowly  developing, 
there  was  not  in  official  circles  the  same  confident  expectation 
of  reaching  by  western  exploration  the  great  China  Sea,  which 
prevailed  in  Paris  and  Quebec.  When,  in  1635,  the  Plymouth 
Company  of  Devon  surrendered  its  charter,  which  had  carried 
their  claim  to  48°  north  latitude,  they  distinctly  averred  that 
the  "  sea  to  sea  "  limits  of  its  terms  were  the  equivalent  of  about 


1  . 

II 


i  fi  A 


:<M  ■  i 


'     ,■ 

I:  i 

: 

•  ■  '■ 


148 


QUEIiEC  RESTORED. 


[Vl 


I'  '-^ 


'mi 


It 


three  thousand  miles.  The  colonies  of  Maryland  and  Virginia, 
backed  by  the  Alleghanies,  were  more  prone  to  imagine  a 
western  sea  not  very  remote  beyond  the  darkened  ridges  of 
those  mountains. 

Life  on  the  St.  Lawrence,  with  almost  a  generation  of  colo- 
nization behind  it,  was  quite  another  thing,  and  Champlain  was 
not  a  man  to  be  blinded  to  its  essential  failure.  With  some- 
thing of  chagrin,  but  with  a  determination  to  make  one  more 
,034.  Three  Stride  in  the  western  march,  he  sent  off  in  July,  1G34, 
Biver».  ^jj  expedition  prepared  to  start  a  new  settlement  at 
Three  Rivers,  which  in  all  these  years  since  Pontgrave  had  dis- 
cerned its  advantages  had  been  left  untried.  He  directed  a 
fort  to  be  built  on  the  very  site  where  the  Iroquois  had  in  the 
past  destroyed  a  stronghold  of  the  Algonquins,  and  one  step 
more  was  taken  on  the  way  to  Cathay.  This  step  meant  that 
the  church  should  once  more  send  still  farther  west  its  pre- 
cursors of  civilization,  and,  after  much  persuasion,  the  Ilurons, 
who  had  come  down  on  one  of  their  trafficking  visits,  were  at 
Jesuits  go  length  prevailed  upon  to  take  back  with  them  some  of 
'^**'-  the  Jesuit  priests.     The  savages  much  i>i'eferred  men 

with  packs  and  arquebuses  to  those  in  cassock  and  hood.  The 
French,  in  bidding  Brebeuf  and  his  companions  good-by,  grati- 
fied the  savage  humor  by  a  discharge  of  cannon.  Brebeuf  was 
not  without  some  military  fervor  himself,  and  we  soon  hear  of 
him,  teaching  the  Hurons  to  build  their  palisades  in  a  square 
with  flanking  towers  at  the  angles,  as  better  fitted  than  their 
round  inclosures  to  give  the  French  arquebus  its  best  effect  in 
helping  repel  an  attack. 

Late  in  July,  Champlain  went  to  Three  Rivers  to  observe  the 
progress  of  the  fort.  It  was  his  last  journey  so  far  west,  and 
on  August  3  he  was  back  in  Quebec.  Shortly  after- 
wards he  gave  a  God-speed  to  Le  Jeuno,  who  went  to 
assume  charge  of  the  new  post,  taking  Father  Buteux  with 
him.  They  arrived  at  Three  Rivers  on  September 
8,  and  three  months  later  found  themselves  in  the 
midst  of  an  epidemic,  which  put  their  courage  to  a  severe  test. 
While  it  was  raging,  Le  Jeune  began  with  his  own  hand  a  reg- 
ister of  baptisms  and  deaths,  which  now  remains  the  solo  doc- 
ument transmitted  to  us  of  these  old  Canadian  days. 
The  early  records  of  Quebec  were  destroyed  a  f(;w 


August. 


Early  rec- 
ords. 


CHAM  PLAIN  AND  NICOLET. 


149 


years  later,  when  the  Chapel  of  Notre  Dame  do  Recoiivranoe, 
which  Champlain  had  erected  to  coinmeinorate  the  recovery  of 
the  town  from  the  English,  was  burned  in  1G40. 

The  establishment  of  the  first  seigneury  at  lieauport  marked 
a  new  stage  in  the  progress  of  the  t'rench  scheme  of  seiRnmiry  «t 
colonization.  A  seigneurial  tenure  to  tract  after  •*'"'"i"'"- 
tract  was  given  in  the  following  years  to  any  enterprising  per- 
son who  would  undertake  to  plant  settlers  on  the  land,  and 
accept  in  return  a  certain  proportion  of  the  grist,  furs,  and  fish 
which  the  occupant  could  secure  by  labor. 

It  was  on  July  22  that  Champlain  held  his  last  council  at 
Quebec,  inviting  the  Hurons,  who  had  come  down  the   ^  .^^  ^^^^ 
river  witn  their  customary  constancy,  to  participate.   I'luiu'siMt 
The  burden  of  the  governor's  address  to  them  was 
that  if  they  would  only  worship  the  Frenchman's  God,  they 
would  flourish  under  his  benignant  protection  and  have  no  dif- 
ficulty in  overcoming  the  Iroquois.      He  told  them  that  they 
only  needed  to  embrace  the  white  man's  faith,  if  they  would 
have  the  white  man  take  their  daughters  in  marriage.     There 
was  room,  he  said,  in  Quebec  for  a  goodly  nimiber  of  their 
young  children,  if  they  v/ould  only  commit  them  to  the  custody 
of  the  kind  French,  who  would  give  them  shelter  and  food  in 
their  holy  houses,  and  be  like  grandparents  to  their  tender 
wards. 

It  was  probably  late  in  July,  1635,  that  Champlain  learned 
of  the  return  of  Nicolet  from  the  mission  on  which  he 
had  dispatched  him  the  previous  year.  It  will  be 
remembered  that  in  1618,  not  long  after  this  young  Norman 
had  arrived  in  the  valley,  Champlain  had  sent  him  among  the 
Indians  to  prepare  him  for  future  service  as  an  interpreter. 
Nicolet  may  have  made  an  occasional  visit  to  the  settlements  in 
all  these  intervening  years,  but  there  is  no  definite  evidence  of 
it.  It  seems  likely  that  his  was  not  a  familiar  face  when  he 
appeared  at  Three  Rivers  in  the  summer  of  1633,  in  the  train 
of  the  Algonquin  traders,  come  thither  for  their  summer  traffic. 
By  the  next  June  (1634)  he  was  ready  for  new  labors.  These 
many  years  among  the  Algonquins  and  Nipissings,  suffering 
their  perils,  had  quickened  his  senses  for  the  hardiest  tasks  of 
the  forest. 


!  }  l|! 


H 


•  i  1 


1      •! 


iWil 


J  : 


t      1 


i?  ■; 


f    ,  n 


'^H 


i  f 


mo 


HXl'LOliATIOys  OF  NICOLET. 


ii'i 


Tho  Cuiiiulian  writur,  Hinijainiii  Suite,  has  hIiowii  it  to  be 
roa.sonubly  curtain  tiiat  Chainplaiii  had  started  Niculut  at  thJM 
time  in  the  train  of  Bri'beuf  and  Daniel,  who  left  Three  Rivers 
for  their  missions  on  July  1,  1034.  Nii^olet's  intention  was  to 
go  far  enough  west  to  learn  something  more  defuiito  than  had 
yet  been  acquired  from  the  Indian  stories,  as  Sagard  tells  us,  of 
those  distant  western  people,  who  had  neither  hair  nor  beards, 
and  who  journeyed  in  great  canoes.  It  was  the  connnon  tale 
that  those  stories  had  passed  eastward  from  a  distant  nation 
who  lived  by  water  that  was  not  fresh,  and  who  had  mi- 
grated to  their  present  homes  from  the  shores  of  a  great  sea. 
Such  were  the  geographical  and  ethnological  riddles  that  Nicolet 
was  now  expected  to  unravel.  Parknian  suggests  that  tho 
brocaded  gown  which  he  is  known  to  have  taken  with  him  was 
in  reference  to  this  hairless  people  who,  in  the  prevalent  opin- 
ion, must  have  been  thought  a  race  of  the  Asiatic  Orient. 

Nioolet's  course  lay  up  the  Ottawa,  and  by  Lake  Nipissing 
to  Georgian  Bay,  and  thence  to  tho  Huron  villages.  Here  he 
renewed  old  friendships,  and  secured  the  services  of  seven  of 
the  tribe  for  guides.  Launching  their  canoes  at  the  head  of 
Georgian  Bay,  the  party  skirted  the  eastern  and  northern 
shores  of  Lake  Huron,  and  found  at  last  their  progres'  checked 
at  Sault  Ste.  Marie.  Nicolet  was  the  first  European 
who  had  reached  this  point,  and,  encamping  on  the 
southern  bank  of  the  passage  and  in  the  present  State  of  Michi- 
gan, he  opened  the  first  communication  which  white  men  had 
with  the  ancestors  of  the  modern  Ojibways.  There  is  no  clear 
evidence  that  he  pushed  by  land  beyond  the  rapids,  so  as  to  got 
a  satisfactory  view  of  the  great  lake  beyond.  Its  existence,  con- 
jectured by  Champlain,  was  yet  to  be  proved  by  others. 

From  the  Sault,  Nicolet  and  his  companions  retraced  their 
way,  and,  following  the  shore  of  what  is  now  called  the  northern 
peninsula  of  Michigan,  they  came  to  tho  Straits  of 
Mackinaw,  —  that  dominant  position  in  the  geography 
of  North  America,  reached  in  just  a  century  from  the  time 
when  Cartier  tried  the  great  northern  portal  of  the  interior  at 
the  Straits  of  Belle  Isle.  Nieolet  could  hardly  have  suspected 
the  commanding  stand  at  which  he  had  at  last  arrived.  With 
all  his  surmises,  he  even  did  not  know  tho  gre.at  channel  which 
led  to  it  from  the  landfall  of  Cartier,  for  tho  existence  of  Lake 


Sault  Ste. 
Murie. 


Straits  of 
Mackiiuiw 


!    • 


SriiAITS   OF  MACKINAW. 


151 


Erie  wjiH  but  faintly  conooivetl ;  aiul  tho  route  by  the  Ottawa, 
with  all  its  obntiiuition,  was  tho  only  pusHago  which  ho  know. 
To  tho  south  of  him  lay  tho  )j;i'cat  lako  whoso  position  Clmmpluiu 
hail  so  recently  mi  sconce  i  veil  in  placing  it  to  tho  north ;  and  at 
tho  heail  of  Lake  Michigan  and  tho  oxtromity  of  (ircen  Bay  — 
shortly  to  bo  tested  by  Nicolot  himself  —  lay  tho  inviting  por- 
tages which  were  in  due  time  to  conduct  tho  French  into  that 
great  valley  which  tho  English  had  not  daivd  to  enter  over  the 
Appalachians,  nor  the  Spaniaitls  to  invade  from  the  Gulf  of 
Mexico.  There  was  no  dream  yot  of  tho  great  ai)luents  of  tho 
Mississippi,  which  by  tho  Missouri  were  to  conduct  tho  explorer 
to  the  Columbia  and  tho  Paeitie,  and  by  tho  Arkansas  were  to 
open  a  way  along  tho  Colorado  to  tho  (iulf  of  California.  AU 
this  was  shadowy  in  men's  minds,  and  tho  speculative  geographer 
of  the  time  had  not  yet  made  it  clear  whether  the  canoe  which 
was  carried  over  the  southern  portages  would  float  to  the  Atlan- 
tic, the  Mexican  Gulf,  or  tho  South  Sea. 

Nor  could  our  adventurous  explorer  have  divined  what  lay  in 
the  farther  west,  —  that  channel  of  tho  Sault,  where  the  rapids 
had  baulked  him,  leading  to  the  long  stretch  of  Lako  Superior, 
which  the  Jesuits,  who  were  now  at  Three  Kivors,  were  yet  to 
unfold ;  the  devious  passage  to  tho  Lako  of  the  Woods  and 
Lake  Winnipeg,  and  the  Indian  trail  which  would  have  led  him 
equally  to  Hudson's  Bay  or  along  the  Alackenzie  Kiver  to  the 
Arctic  Ocean ;  and  tho  turn  off  at  Lake  Athabasca,  which 
would  have  conducted  him  to  tho  northern  tributaries  of  the 
Columbia. 

These  were  the  possibilities  to  bo  made  clear  in  coming  years, 
—  the  route  to  China  was  to  dissolve  to  this. 

From  the  Straits  of  Mackinaw  Nicolet  passed  on  to  ^rroen 
Bay,  and  pi'oceeded  to  its  southern  extremity.  Here  he  er*  rai- 
tered  the  tribe  whom  wo  know  as  tho  Winnebagoes.  vvinne- 
His  damask  robe  and  his  pistols,  belching  fire  as  he  '''  '*°"'* 
stalked  to  meet  the  savages,  made  them  look  ui>oji  him  as  a 
strange  spirit.  The  exploi*er  soon  found  that  his  familiarity 
with  the  Algonquin  and  Huron  tongues  availed  him  little,  for 
the  Winnebagoes  were  the  first  of  tho  Dacotah  stock  that  the 
white  man  had  seen.  The  messages  of  good-will  and  peace 
which  Nicolet  brought  to  them  wore  not  rejected ;  and  mutual 
professions  were  enforced  by  speech  and  feast. 


^ 

'1 

'   ii 

1 

r 

^1 

1 

t!.   '  ' 

■       'i 

■|i    !'"''■! 


I    I 


m 


If- 


,,  1 


'Ill 


ii; 


152 


EXPLORATIONS  OF  NICOLET. 


Leaving  his  new-found  friends  behind  him,  Nicolot  pushed  up 
the  Fox  River,  threaded  its  tortuous  ways,  passed  its  frequent 
lakes,  and  reached  the  villages  of  the  Mascoutins,  —  a 
tribe  whose  name  had  been  familiar,  by  report,  twenty 
years  before,  for  they  had  a  fame  for  daring  courage  which  had 
extended  far  to  the  east.  He  was  now  among  a  folk  of  the 
Algonquin  stock,  and  was  better  able  to  understand  the  stories 
which  they  told  him  of  other  water  away  towards  the  south, 
three  days  off.  It  was  to  be  reached  by  ascending  the  Fox  still 
higher,  and  then  by  crossing  a  short  portage,  whence  he  could 
"  Great  dcsccud  to  the  "  great  water."  This  designation,  in 
water."  ^j^g  miscouceptiou  of  its  import,  long  nurtured  a  be- 
lief in  some  expansive  sea.  The  story  which  Nicolet  heard  in 
reality  prefigured  the  channel  of  the  Wisconsin,  flowing  into 
the  great  central  stream  of  the  Mississippi  valley,  destined  to 
remain  a  mystery  for  forty  years  yet  to  come. 

For  some  reason  Nicolet  did  not  attempt  to  make  this  mo- 
mentous passage  of  the  low  lands,  which  here  constitute  the  ridge 
between  the  great  valleys  of  North  America,  and  it  was  left  for 
Joliet  and  Marquette  to  establish  the  truth. 

We  follow  Nicolet  in  these  wanderings  mainly  from  his  story, 
as  repeated  by  Viniont  in  the  Jesuit  It  elation,  published  six 
years  later.  That  we  find  no  published  record  till  1640  has 
led  writers  on  the  subject  to  assume  that  this  exploit  of  Nicolet 
Date  of  must  liavc  taken  place  in  1639  instead  of  1634.  It 
fxpedkiou,  was  Suite  who  made  the  earlier  date  a  certainty. 
1034.  jjg  published  his  conclusions  in  1876  in  a  volume  of 

miscellanies,  and  reinforced  his  argument  in  the  Collections  of 
the  Wisconsin  Historical  Society  in  1879.  Later  students  have 
hardly  questioned  his  conclusions,  but  some  popular  writers  have 
been  ignorant  of  them. 

We  have  not  represented  that  Nicolet  passed  into  the  Wis- 
consin River.  It  is  fair  to  say  that  the  langur.ge  as  given  by 
Vimont  has  sometimes  been  interpreted  to  mean  that  Nicolet 
actually  did  float  his  canoe  on  that  tributary  of  the  IVIississippi. 
Instead  of  this,  however,  it  seems  far  more  certain  that  Nicolet 
Illinois  and  P"shed  dircctly  south  and  reached  the  tribe  of  the 
Sioux.  IHinois,  whcrc  he  saw  something  of  the  Sioux,  who 

were  in  that  neighborhood  on  an  expeilition  from  the  country 
farther  west. 


3: 


DEATH  OF  CHAMPLAIN. 


153 


mo- 


On  his  return  clown  Green  Bay,  Nicolet  is  known  to  have 
exchanged  friendly  courtesies  with  the  Pottawattamies,  pottawatta- 
scattered  along  the  western  shores  of  Lake  Michigan.  ""**• 
It  was  probably  in  the  early  summer  of  1635  that,  having  parted 
>vith  lus  faithful  Hurons  in  their  villages,  Nicolet  joined  the 
customary  flotilla  descending  the  Ottawa  for  the  summer  trade, 
and  reached  Three  Rivers  some  time  in  July. 

Unfortunately,  we  are  without  any  knowledge  of  the  effect 
which  Nicolet's  story  may  have  had  on  Champlain,  and  we  are 
left  without  any  conception  of  the  reason  why  such  portentous 
events  should  have  failed  of  any  recognition  which  has  come 
down  to  us,  till  Vimont  recounted  the  story.  It  was  left  for 
Sagard  to  condense  the  narrative  in  his  subsequent  history.  It 
may  have  been  in  recognition  of  his  services  that  Nicolet  received 
one  of  Champlain's  last  appointments,  in  being  made  commis- 
sary and  interpreter  at  Three  Rivers.  We  soon  find  in  the  con- 
temporary records  evidence  of  Nicolet's  unmistakable  activity 
in  that  region. 

The  last  letter  preserved  to  us  which  Champlain  wrote  makes 
no  mention  of  the  great  exploit  which  we  have  just 
been  recordmg.     This  missive  is   dated   August   15,  plain's  last 

....  T  •  .  letter. 

1G35,  and  in  it  he  still  tries  to  impress  upon  Richelieu 
the  necessity  of  further  succoring  the  colony.  He  speaks  of 
the  English  as  haunting  the  lower  St.  Lawrence,  and  professing 
to  do  so  with  their  king's  permission.  The  Dutch  and  the 
Iroquois  to  the  south  still  troubled  him  ;  but  thoughts  of  them 
did  not  harass  him  long. 

About  the  middle  of  October,  Champlain  fell  under  a  stroke 
of  paralysis.     For  two  months  and  a  half  he  suffered, 
and  at  last  on  Christmas  Day,  1635,  the  end  came. 

The  intrepid  governor  lay  dead  in  his  own  Quebec, 
the  incipient  city  of  blasted  hopes.  Trade  had  supported  it,  and 
had  stunted  it.  A  summer  of  activity  and  a  winter  of  inaction 
was  its  story,  year  in  and  year  out.  In  the  long  and  hot  July 
days  the  people  had  found  enough  to  do,  and  there  was  enough 
for  their  amusement  in  the  varying  procession  of  Huron  canoes 
which  came  down  the  St.  Lawrence  and  emptied  the  living  and 
furry  burdens  on  the  strand  beneath  the  cliffs  for  the  annual 
traffic.     The  merchants  sold  implements  and  trinkets  to  the  sav- 


1035,  Dec. 
25.    Chain- 
plain  dies. 


■  ■  -i 

.•j    ,1  ■ 

■  '■ 

ii 

'1^ 

'■  I  ■ 

1    : 

.'1 

-  ;  i  f 

.    ■■it 

i 

..     Ir     1 

/• 

Hi 

ril:. 


■  !;    j 

■  ■ '    ti 

infill' 


-  J 

it'!"' 


W'l 


1    i! 


■ 


m 


n   % 


h 


ml 


I*  IP 'J 


:j 


-J  si 


;    m!  'Bill 
i    if- 


I,' 


154 


DEATH  OF  CHAMPLAIN. 


ages,  loaded  their  barks  with  peltry,  and  sailed  away,  to  leave 
those  who  remained,  despondent,  listless,  nursing  their  misfor- 
tunes, and  too  few  for  generous  enterprises.  The  merchants' 
ships  took  their  factors  back  to  France,  to  a  constituency  which 
counted  gains,  and  cared  nothing  for  those  who  rendered  profits 
possible. 

The  dream  of  empire  which  Ghamplain  had  cherished  had 
come  to  this.  There  was  a  fortress  with  a  few  small  guns  on 
the  cliffs  of  Cape  Diamond.  Along  the  foot  of  the  precipice  was 
a  row  of  unsightly  and  unsubstantial  buildings,  where  the  scant 
population  lived,  carried  on  their  few  handicrafts,  and  stored 
their  winter's  provisions.  It  was  a  motley  crowd  which  in  the 
drear  days  sheltered  itself  here  from  the  cold  blasts  that  blew 
along  the  river  channel.  There  was  the  militaiy  officer,  who 
sought  to  give  some  color  to  the  scene  in  showing  as  much  of 
his  brilliant  garb  as  the  cloak  which  shielded  him  from  the  wind 
would  permit.  The  priest  went  from  house  to  house  with  his 
looped  hat.  The  lounging  hunter  preferred  for  the  most  part 
to  tell  his  story  within  doors.  Occasionally  you  could  mark  a 
stray  savage,  who  had  come  to  the  settlement  for  food.  Such 
characters  as  these,  and  the  lazy  laborers  taking  a  season  of 
rest  after  the  summer's  traffic,  would  be  grouped  in  the  narrow 
street  beneath  the  precipice  whenever  the  wintry  sun  gave  more 
than  its  usual  warmth  at  midday.  It  was  hardly  a  scene  to 
inspire  confidence  in  the  future.  It  was  not  the  beginning  of 
empire. 

If  one  climbed  the  path  leading  to  the  top  of  the  rugged 
slope,  he  could  see  a  single  cottage,  that  looked  as  if  a  settler 
had  come  to  stay.  There  were  cattle-sheds,  and  signs  of  thrift 
in  its  garden  plot.  If  Champlain  had  had  other  colonists  like 
the  man  who  built  this  house  and  marked  out  this  farmstead,  he 
might  have  died  with  the  hope  that  New  France  had  been 
planted  in  this  great  valley  on  thu  basis  of  domestic  life.  The 
widow  of  this  genuine  settler,  Ilebert,  still  occui)ied  the  house 
at  the  time  when  Champlain  died,  and  they  point  out  to  you 
now,  in  the  upper  town,  the  spot  where  this  one  early  house- 
holder of  Quebec  made  his  little  struggle  to  instill  a  proper 
spirit  of  colonization  into  a  crowd  of  barterers  and  adventurers. 
From  this  upper  level  the  visitor  at  this  time  might  have  glanced 
across  the  valley  of  the  St.  Charles  to  but  a  single  other  sign  of 


CHAMPLAIN'S  BURIAL. 


155 


permanency  in  the  stone  manor  house  of  Robert  Gifart,  which 
had  the  previous  year  been  built  r.i  T*3auport. 

We  know  that  the  Jesuit  Laleii:ti':«  did  the  last  service,  and 
Le  Jeune  spoke  a  eulogy  when  they  laid  the  dead  hero  away. 
As  time  rolled  on,  the  place  of  his  burial  was  forgotten,  and 
it  is  not  many  years  since  the  growing  fame  of  one  who  has 
not  been  inaptly  called  the  Father  of  Canada  prompted  the 
antiquary  to  search  for  the  sacred  resting-place  of  the  dead. 
Theories  as  regards  the  identity  of  its  site  have  been  more  than 
once  advanced  and  abandoned  within  the  last  thirty  years.  It 
seems,  after  all  has  been  said  and  done,  that  the  present  better 
judgment  allows  that  every  trace  of  the  mortuary  chapel 
where  he  was  laid  to  rest  has  been  swept  away.  It  was  in  what 
is  now  an  open  square  in  the  upper  town.  If  Champlain's 
remains  were  taken  to  another  place  when  the  chapel  was  de- 
stroyed, the  act  was  done  without  any  record  which  has  been 
preserved. 


i'iilil 


CHAPTER  VIII. 


u 


:    .Mi 


Moutmagny. 


Arrives,  1C36. 


FROM  THE  DEATH  OF  CHAMPLAIN  TO  THE  REORGANIZATION 

OF  THE  GOVERNMENT. 

1635-1663. 

With  the  death  of  Chanii)lain,  Canada  was  left  without  a 
ruler,  except  for  the  supervision  exercised  by  the  governor  of 
Three  Rivers.  Charles  Huault  de  Montniagny  had 
been  appointed  in  Champlain's  place  as  early  as 
IVIarch,  1636.  It  does  not  seem  probable  that  the  death  of 
Champlain,  at  a  season  when  the  St.  Lawrence  was  ice-bound, 
could  have  been  known  in  Paris  so  eai'ly  in  the  year.  If  it 
was  not  known,  the  superseding  of  Champlain  must  already 
have  been  determined  upon,  and  very  likely  at  the  instigation 
of  the  Jesuits.  It  was  June  when  the  new  governor 
reached  Quebec.  Almost  immediately  Le  Jeune  and 
his  brotherhooJ"  felt  that  they  had  gained  a  sympathizing 
friend.  Montmaguy  had  scarcely  set  foot  to  ground  before  he 
fell  prostrate  at  the  sight  of  a  cross.  He  lost  no  time  in  stand- 
ing godfather  to  a  converted  heathen.  A  neophyte  had  but 
just  died,  and  Montmaguy  conspicuously  walked  in  the  funeral 
procession. 

When  his  piety  was  thus  manifested,  the  governor  turned  to 
more  worldly  affairs.  Quebec  had  become  a  rather  pitiable 
home  for  some  two  huntlred  souls,  but  such  as  it  was,  it  made 
the  centre  of  the  interest  which  France  had  in  the  new  world. 
The  ruler  who  had  arrived  was  a  far  less  enterprising  man  than 
the  one  whom  these  two  hundred  Frenchmen,  barring  the  Jes- 
uits, were  mourning.  If  Champlain  had  lived  and  continued  in 
office,  there  would  jirobably  have  been  early  occasion  to  chroni- 
cle some  expedition  to  the  west  to  follow  out  the  hopes  which 
the  story  of  Nicolet  had  raised.  As  it  was,  that  adventurer's 
story  seems  hardly  to  have  met  any  inmiediate  response,  and 


J'! 


J 


'      :  ■.'  I  I 


MONTMAGNY  AND   THE  JESUITS. 


157 


it  was  not  till  several  years  had  passed  that  it  found,  as  we 
have  seen,  a  record  in  the  chronicles  of  the  priests.  A  triumph 
of  the  church  might  have  been  sooner  recognized. 

Montmagny's  purpose  was  rather  to  consolidate  the  colony 
and  render  it  more  defensible  with  the  scant  force  at  his  com- 
mand. So  he  strengthened  the  fort,  and  marked  out  an  upper 
town  on  the  adjacent  plateau.  This  project  was  quite  beyond 
what  seemed  to  be  necessary  ;  for  there  was  very  little  of  per- 
manent interest  in  the  town  among  the  scant  population  which 


Le  jeune. 

[From  an  old  Print.] 

filled  the  tenements  along  the  lower  strand.  This  population 
was  largely  made  up  of  the  fur  traders,  who  only  came  and  went. 
The  priest  was  a  steadier  denizen,  but  he  was  likely  to  wander 
back  and  forth  through  the  wilderness.  It  was  his  career  to 
keep  the  missions  in  fitful,  if  not  constant,  communication  with 
the  town.  The  gliding  nuns  were  barely  more  tlian  birds  of 
passage  alighted  on  the  way  to  heaven,  and  fiitted  from  cabin 
to  hospital. 

The  black-robed  Jesuits  exercise,,  an  influence  that  will  be 
viewed  differently  according  to  the  measure  of  sympathy  which 


.4  a 


! 


II 


i;    r! 


(  ■;■ 


I 

'I; 


I  ■ ;    ' ', 


! :  '.1 


,  i 


■      !.i 
■  I 


I 


158 


CANADA,   1635-1003. 


II : 


! 


1^  ! 


>•-; 


attaches  to  their  devotion  and  dominance.  These  qualities  in 
Jesuits  and  ^^^^^  bodj'  havB  been  held  to  be  conconntants  of  havdi- 
FranciscauB.  jjood  and  hcroism,  but  an  ago  less  addicted  to  seuti- 
mentalism,  and  a  faith  more  imbued  with  spiritualism,  ai*e  apt 
to  diminish  reputations  onco  exalted.  The  exclusion  of  the 
Franciscans  accounts  for  much  that  is  lacking  which  might  have 
made  life  more  endurable  under  their  balmier  and  strengtli* 
giving  influences.  It  was  only  those  that  shunned  the  settle- 
ments and  lost  themselves  in  the  woodb,  and  became  in  some 
respects  more  skilled  in  woodcraft  than  their  Indian  compan- 
ions, who  breathed  the  fresh  air  that  supjmrts  reliant  men,  — or 
at  least  the  enemies  of  the  Jesuits  thouglit  so,  when  they  con- 
templated those  who  fled  from  their  priestly  influence. 

The  missions  which  Brebeuf  and  his  companions  had  insti- 
tuted among  the  Hurons  in  1634  were  still  the  outposts  of  the 
church,  and  for  some  years  we  have  the  reports  respecting 
them  annually  sent  to  Quebec  by  Lemercier.  It  has  been  roi-k- 
oned  that  these  adventurous  missionaries  had  gathered  into 
what  they  called  the  fold  of  Christ  perhaps  a  hundred  out  of 
the  sixteen  thousand  souls  making  up  the  Huron  communities. 
It  was  not  theirs  to  reckon  the  cost  against  so  paltry  a  gain. 
The  happiness  of  a  single  soul  was  enough. 

Every  attempt  to  preserve  communications  between  these 
remote  stations  and  the  main  settlement  was  a  haxardous  one. 
The  Iroquois  weie  a  danger  both  seen  and  unseen,  and  their 
fierce  ubiquity  stood  appallingly  in  the  way  of  exploration  out- 
side of  the  Huron  country. 

In  1637,  the  authorities  at  Quebec  began  to  gather  a  few  fam- 
1G37.  St.  ^liss  of  the  Montagnais  in  a  little  settlement  at  St. 
josepL'B.  Joseph's  (Sillevy),  the  better  to  protect  them  from  the 
savage  Iroquois.  The  trembling  creatures  were  not  safe  even 
there,  and  by  1640  some  nuns  who  had  been  aduiui- 
istering  to  the  sick  among  them  were  withdrawn  to 
Quebec  for  safety.  The  confederates  were  everywhere  on  the 
war-path.  Letters  from  tlie  remoter  missions  Wi're  not  infre- 
quently intercepted  by  them.  The  bluck-robos  in  (Quebec,  anx- 
ious for  the  safety  of  their  brothers  afar,  had  frequent  intervals 
of  suspense  that  only  good  luck  relieved. 

A  report  from  the  Huron  country  at  this  time  makes  men- 
tion of  a  map  which  the  Pere  Raguenoau  had  drawn  of  this 


1610. 


H       'IB 


MISSIONS. 


159 


western  country,  but  it  has  unfortunately  not  corae  down  to  us. 
It  might  have  shown  in  truer  position  than  Champlain  Ragueneau'a 
had  given  it,  the  great  cataract,  which  Vimont  was  """P' 
now  calling  Onguiaahra.  T  .is  director  of  the  Canadian  mis- 
sions also  forwarded  to  Paris  a  letter  of  Le  Jeune,  written  in 
September,  1640,  in  which  it  is  said  that  an  Englishman,  com- 
ing by  the  Kennebec  route,  accompanied  by  a  single  servant 
and  some  Abenaki  Indians,  had  reached  Quebec,  in  the  pre- 
vious June,  on  the  way  to  find  a  western  sea;  but  that  the 
French  governor  had  turned  him  back.  In  the  same  lielation 
it  is  reported  that  a  prisoner  to  the  Fire  or  Tobacco 

.  -  ,  11  Tales  of  the 

nation,  commg  from  the  southwest,  had  represented  "est  and 
that  a  region  beyond  his  home  was  so  mild  that  corn 
could  be  planted  twice  a  year,  the  last  crop  being  gathered  in 
Decemb  er. 

It  was  such  stories  as  these  that  both  created  and  answered 
the  yearning  of  the  geographical  sense  in  its  uneasy  moods. 
Every  hint  of  a  salubrious  climate  and  a  possible  western  way 
was  comforting  and  reassuring. 

While  the  Jesuit  Relations  were  making  such  stories  cur- 
rent, they  offered  something  much  less  vague  in  the  reports, 
which  showed  that  Nicolet  had  already  reached  regions  which 
were  unknown  before,  and  that  a  new  mission  had  ganitste. 
been  established  at  the  Sault  Ste.  Marie.  Communi-  "*"*• 
cation  with  this  distant  station  wms  evidently  to  be  maintained 
by  chance  and  at  long  intervals,  if  maintained  at  all. 

The  priests  who  had  accomplished  this  exploration  in  1641 
were  the  Fathers  Raymbault  and  Jogues.     They  had 
started  for  the  mission  of  Ste.  Marie  at  the  foot  of 
Georgian  Bay,  near  the  Huron  villages.     Leaving  in 
June,  they  were  in  September  at  the  rapids  between  Huron  and 
Superior,  where  only  Nicolet  had  preceded  them.     They  found 
two  thousand  savages  encamped  there,  or  about  ten  times  the 
number  usually  abiding  at  the  Sault.     Among  them  were  the 
Pottawattamies,  who  had  fled  north  before  wandering  bands  of 
the  Iroquois,  and   were   now  fraternizing  with    the  Pottawatta- 
Ojibways.     The  priests  heard  from  them  of  the  great  '^'^ys  *^^'**" 
river  and  of  a  valorous  people  along  its  banks.     This  (^'°"'')- 
unknown  tribe,  by  a  clipping  of  their  full  name,  we  know 
to-day  under  the  designation  of  Sioux.     It  was  while  here  at 


Raym- 
bault and 
Jogues. 


'     I 


'I5?i 


:  1 


mI^ 


i;^»i 
;'^*i 


160 


I 

j 
I 


■"sj  n  :'i 


CANADA,  16S5-1663. 


1C42. 

Jogues 

taken. 


the  rapids  that  one  of  the  Jesuits  —  Father  Raymbault  —  passed 
Raymbauit  ^way,  and  Vimont,  in  reporting  the  occurrence  to  his 
'*'**'  superior  in  Paris,  said  that  Raymbaidt  hoped  to  reach 

China  across  the  wihlerness,  but  God  diverted  his  path  to 
heaven  I 

By  this  time  the  French  were  beginning  to  perceive  that  the 
possession  of  the  shores  of  Lake  Erie  would  render  the  passage 
from  Ontario  to  Huron  safer  and  easier,  and  without  the  loss 
of  time  required  for  the  route  by  the  Ottawa.  But  an  impend- 
ing Iroquois  war  put  oit  the  fortunate  day.  With  the  firearms 
which  the  confederates  had  obtained  of  the  Dutch  at  Albany, 
—  the  main  station  of  that  people,  for  New  Amsterdam  had  at 
this  time  little  more  than  a  score  of  dwellers,  —  they  had 
increased  both  their  daring  and  their  power  of  offense.  An 
appalling  stroke  soon  came.  In  August  (1642),  twelve  Huron 
canoes,  returning  from  their  summer  traffic  with  the  French, 
were  waylaid  by  a  band  of  Iroquois  in  ambush,  and 
Father  Jogues  and  some  adherents,  again  on  their  way 
to  the  missions,  fell«  into  the  hands  of  those  savages. 
The  victors  with  their  prisoners  made  a  circuit  through  the 
woods  near  the  mouth  of  the  Richelieu,  to  avoid  the  fort  which 
the  French  had  constructed  on  its  banks.  Their  canoes  were 
soon  dashing  against  the  stream  on  the  way  to  Lake  Cham- 
plain.  South  they  passed,  and  entering  ♦^he  passage  near  where 
Champlain  had  taught  the  Iroquois  the  value  of  firearms  thirty- 
three  years  before,  the  victorious  party  pushed  out  into  the 
upper  tributary  lake.  Father  Jogues  was  perhaps  the  first  of 
Europeans  to  see  the  untamed  glories  of  Lake  George. 

Blaeu's  Atlas  of  1635  shows  how  much  at  fault  the  Dutch 
were  at  this  time  as  to  the  position  of  Lake  Cham- 
plain  ;  indeed,  taking  the  English  notion  as  expressed 
in  the  Laoonia  patent,  it  seems  almost  as  if  before 
this  experience  of  Jogues,  and  even  afterwards,  both 
the  Dutch  and  the  English  were  inclined  to  confound  the 
waters  on  the  west  of  Vermont  with  Lake  Winnepesaukee  in 
New  Hampshire.  At  the  same  time  they  brought  in  their  maps 
the  Lacus  Irocociensis  too  far  south.  This  notion  long  pre- 
vailed in  the  Dutch  maps,  taking  the  hint  doubtless  from  that 
of  Champlain  in  1613,  and  was  accepted  by  Ogilby  and  other 
English  cartographers  for  forty  or  fifty  years  after  Jogues's 


lAkea 
Champlain 
and  Georjfe, 
Geographi- 
cal errors. 


Mi 


FOUNDING  OF  MONTREAL. 


161 


adventures.  The  map  of  the  Mercator-TIondius  Atlas  in  1636 
seems  to  indicate  that  a  conception  of  this  water  tributary  to 
Lake  Champlain,  now  known  as  Lake  George,  had  been  derived 
from  some  source  before  that  date,  though  the  basin  of  the  two 
lakes  is  placed  after  the  prevailing  misconception. 

We  have  no  occasion  at  this  point  to  depict  that  sort  of 
martyrdom,  emulating  the  stoical  endurance  of  the  pagan,  which 
the  Jesuit  historians  delight  to  honor,  in  the  tortures  which 
these  captive  priests  experienced.  The  scene  of  this  suffering 
is  of  more  importance  to  us  now,  as  that  of  the  first  „ 

•  !•      •»       -n  1         •  1       1  1  Soutliern 

acquaintance  of  the  r  rench  with  the  southern  water-  water-shed 
shed  of  Ontario.     We  have  Jogues's  own  account  of 
it,  both  in  what  he  wrote  and  in  the  personal  testimony  which 
he  gave  his  countrymen,  when,  the  next  year  (1643),  he  was 
rescued  by  the  neighboring  Dutch  from  his  savage  tormentors. 
He  was  sent  by  them  to  France,  and  returned  once  more,  after 
an  absence  of  two  years,  to  other  miseries.   It  was  while  at  one 
of  the  Iroquois  villages  (June,  1643)  that  Jogues  de- 
scribed  the  seven  hundred  warriors  which  he  found  amon(?tiie 
about  him,  and  sji'd  that  they  had  three  hundred 
Dutch  arquebuses  among  them,  and  that  their  war  parties  were 
departing  to  the  north  to  make  havoc  along  the  St.  Lawrence. 

Before  Jogues  had  returned  to  Quebec,  a  brother  Jesuit, 
Bressani,  endeavoring  to  open  communication  with 
the  Huroi  'uission,  which  had  been  shut  off  for  three 
years,  was  likewise  captured  by  one  of  these  marauding  bands 
of  the  confederates,  and  went  through  the  same  miserable  ex- 
perience of  torture,  to  be  rescued  in  his  turn  by  the  Dutch  in 
much  the  same  way.  In  another  year  this  Italian  zealot  also 
was  facing  once  more  the  perils  of  a  mission  life. 

There  is  a  strange  story  to  tell  of  the  way  in  which  a  new  and 
permanent  settlement  was  pushed  forward  to  an  island  Founding  of 
at  the  mouth  of  the  Ottawa,  gaining  another  step  in  mo"''^^''!- 
the  westward  occupation.  To  see  the  piety  of  those  who  were 
instrumental  in  the  founding  of  Montreal,  one  needs  to  be  in 
the  spirit  of  the  movement.  Without  such  sympathy,  it  is  not 
difficult  to  perceive  its  grotesqueness  sooner  than  its  religious 
fervor. 

Different  persons  in  France,  having  no  knowledge  or  inter- 


Bressani. 


''    f 


!  ii 


!!<' 


'li  ;■ 


t«^ 


■1       ^-^ 


Til 


I 


Wi 


:  >^i 


162 


CANADA,  1635-W(i.i. 


CARTE  DT: 

LISLE  DEMO?^TREAL 

ET  DE  SES  EN^^mONS 

Dresfe'c  furies  Mamiscrits  Ju  Dfjio.ti  (li>s  Cartes  FUiot 
et  Joumoux  dc  l&Atoniic 

'744'  .? 


MONTUKAL 


MONTUEAL. 


1G3 


\l 


f>V' 


it  ]\ 


M 


?      I 


AND  VICINITY. 


JihMiUand  OmUp 


164 


CANADA,  1035-1663. 


\ 


\\ 


i  '-n 


m 

m 

1. 1    - 


I 


I 


course  with  each  other,  behold  visions  of  a  spot  in  the  Cana- 
dian wilds  wliere  they  are  separately  impelled  to  found  hospi- 
tals  and  establish  religious  orders.  The  Jesuit  Jielatinnn  had 
indeed  toid  their  readers  something  of  what  this  spot  was, 
where  now  stands  the  chief  commercial  (;ity  of  Canada ;  but 


MAISONNEUVE. 
[From  Sulte'a  Canadiens-Franfaia,  vol.  iil.] 

the  story  loses  something  of  its  lesson  to  the  faithful,  if  each 
enraptured  visionary  knew  anything  of  it  in  so  obvious  a  way. 
As  it  happened,  two  of  these  ecstatic  men  met  by  a  miracle,  em 
braced  like  old  friends,  and  took  a  walk  together  to  outline  their 
conjoined  plans.  The  Abbe  Faillon,  who  tells  us  of  it,  might 
have  walked  with  them,  he  knows  so  much  of  it  all,  and  in  this 
nineteenth  century  tells  us  the  whole  story  in  more  than  one  of 


1 


inh 
alia 
the 


;  1 1 


FOUNDINQ  OF  MOyTHFAL. 


105 


I  a'l^  hooks,  with  a  pleasing  and  uiiqupstionin};  faith.  We  read 
in  hJH  pages  how  Olier  and  Dauversihre,  with  others  who  were 
allured  by  the  ecstasy,  got  what  money  was  needed,  and  secured 
the  island  by  a  grant  from  the  Hundred  Associates.      These 


JEANNK  MANCK. 

[From  Suite's  CaitmUtiiit'Fmin-aiHt  vol.  111.] 

astute  fur  traders,  however,  were  careful  enoug^h  in  their  grant 
to  guard  the  perpetuity  of  their  own  rights  of  trade  from  the 
infringements  of  priest,  nun,  and  invalid.      At  this  juncture, 
Paul  de  Chomedy,   Sieur  de   Maisonneuve,  stepped  8i«wrde 
forward,  sword  in  one  hand  and  psalter  in  the  other,  Mawonneuve. 


•  5  ! 


\l 


166 


CANADA,  1GS5-1663. 


Jeanne 
Manre. 


i 


as  the  commanding  spirit  who  was  to  govern  this  little  colony. 
With  equal  opportuneness  Mademoiselle  Jeanne  Manee,  fit 
governess  for  those  of  her  sex,  appeared  at  Rochelle, 
ready  to  embark  with  this  strange  embryo  colony. 
Where  she  was  going  she  neither  knew  nor  cared ;  she  was  im- 
pelled to  do  the  work  of  the  Lord,  and  would  fain  attempt  it. 

So  with  this  miraculously  compounded  company,  Maisson- 
neuve  and  the  lady  were  wafted  to  sea  in  one  of  the  ships, 
while  Olier  and  the  other  leaders  stayed  behind  to  make  other 
worldly  preparations.  When  the  pioneer  ship  arrived  at  Que- 
be^j,  it  was  too  late  to  ascend  the  river  beyond,  and,  obliged 
to  delay,  the  eager  colonists  did  not  find  a  ready  welcome  at 

the  hands  of  the 
constituted  author- 
ities. The  soli- 
citude which  was 
expressed  at  the 
dangers  pictured 
for  them  in  so  ex- 
posed a  situation  as 
Montreal  was  evi- 
dently not  so  much 
the  result  of  anxi- 
ety for  their  wel- 
fare, as  jealousy  of 
their  movement. 
This  ungracious- 
ness did  not  w<>ar 
off  during  the  win- 
ter, and  Maison- 
neuve's  company, 
quartered  at  Sil- 
lery,  were  quite 
ready,  when  the 
spring  opened,  to 
move  up  to  their  destined  plantation.  In  the  mean  while  their 
supreme  faith  had  attracted  the  attention  of  Madame 
de  la Peltrie,  and  she  was  ready  to  leave  the  Uisu- 
lines  at  Quebec  and  join  the  new-comers. 

In  May,  1642,  the  flotilla  of  the  enthiusiasts  reached  the  site 


MADAME  DE  LA  PELTRIE. 


Mailame  de 
la  I'eltrie. 


THE  HUNDRED  ASSOCIATES. 


167 


of  Montreal.     Father  Viinont  welcomed  them  to  the  spot  with 

a  holy  ceremonial,  accepting  them  as  a  charge  of  the 

order  of  Jesus.     So  Montreal  was  begun  on  the  green 

grass  of  the  river-side,  skirted  about  with  a  screen  of  the  forest, 

just  as  the  buds  were  swelling. 

The  experiment  curiously  reversed  ordinary  ways  of  settle- 
ment The  town  was  not  founded  to  invite  the  erection  of 
a  hospital  as  the  ills  of  life  demanded  it,  but  a  hospital  was 
to  be  put  up  to  invite  settlers  to  put  a  town  about  it.  It  was 
a  piece  of  good  luck  that  the  Iroquois  let  them  alone  for  tlie 
interval  while  they  were  constructing  their  buildings  and  pali- 
sading their  ground.  The  river  itself  proved  a  bitterer  foe 
than  the  savage,  and  at  one  time  nearly  drowned  them  out.  It 
was  to  celebrate  their  deliverance  from  this  disaster  that  they 
marched  out  to  the  mountain  w]  Ich  had  attracted  Cartier,  and 
set  up  a  cross  on  its  summit. 

Montreal,  thus  placed  and  fortified,  under  the  zealous  cap- 
taincy of  a/tnan  like  Maisonneuve,  proved  an  important  post 
for  the  western  progress  of  civilization.  It  was  suitably  situ- 
ated to  fornna  base  for  the  protection  of  the  Ottawa  route  on 
the  one  hand,  and  on  the  other  hand  it  was  well  planned  for 
an  advance  of  population  by  the  main  stream  of  the  St.  Law- 
rence. 

There  was  little  hope  for  the  future,  however,  with  the  Hun- 
dred Associates  still  farming  out  the  resources  of  the  -r,,e  Hunared 
country.  The  piety  of  the  religious  orders  was  a«so'^'»'''s- 
shocked  at  the  comi)any's  inertness  in  all  that  might  conduce  to 
the  conversion  of  the  heathen.  Those  who  had  the  good  of  the 
colony  most  at  heart  failed  to  see  any  pur})ose  in  the  Associates 
to  increase  the  colony  or  improve  its  condition.  Its  spirit  had 
manifested  no  purpose  1)ut  to  fill  its  coffers. 

The  charter  of  the  comi)any  had  given  power  to  establish 
fiefs  or  seigneuries,  with  the  obligation  iqjon  those  who  received 
them  to  settle  innnigrants  upon  the  soil.  It  was  a  gift  which 
compelled  the  possessors  of  the  grants  to  incur  outlays  and  ])er- 
forni  duties  which  were  variously  fulfilled.  Up  to  1041,  there 
had  been  eight  seigneuries  established,  and  we  have  seen  how  at 
Champlaiu's    death  the    erection    of    a   stone    manor 

I  l^  1111  !•      1  -\\-'^  Xi'w  Fri\iico 

house  at  lieau])ort  had  marked  one  or  them.      When   and  New 
the  abolition  of   vhe  company  took    place   in  Febru- 


!       ! 


{-1 


w 


i    .; 


If }» 
hi 


168 


CANADA,  1635-1663. 


ary,  1663,  there  had  been  sixty-five  such  manorial  grants  of  im- 
portance, beside  some  of  little  account.     This  all  signified  an 


CdllT£, 


M0NTK1;AL   AM)    VlflXUV. 


old-world  and  disjointed  way  of  settling  the  country,  subversive 
of  homogeneous  activity.    The  result  was  what  might  have  been 


:i.L.^^ 


of  im- 
ied  an 


PEACE  AND  WAR. 


109 


expected,  and  in  striking-  contrast  to  that  union  of  sentiment 
among  the  English  colonists  which,  at  this  time  (1G43),  brouglit 
about  the  New  England  confederacy,  rei)resenting  in  Massa- 
chusetts Bay  alone  something  like  twenty  thousand  souls,  throw- 
ing off  their  bondage  to  the  traditions  of  the  mother  land, 
and  enacting  of  themselves  their  code  of  laws  in  a  '"  Body  of 
Liberties." 


Canada  had  scant  hope  in  the  peace  with  the  Iroquois,  which 
was  close  at  hand.  Couture,  who  had  been  captured  with 
Jogues,  had  been  adopted  by  the  Mohawks,  and  had  used  his 
exertions  to  foster  among  them  a  spirit  of  amity  towards  the 
French.  It  so  happened  that  a  number  of  the  Iroquois  had 
been  taken  by  the  Algonquins,  and  clemency  had  been  shown 
to  them  at  the  instigation  of  the  French.  This  incident  gave 
persuasiveness  to  Couture's  appeals,  and  the  ^^lohawks 

Mohawks 

were  induced  to  send  an  embassy  to  Three  Kivers  to  I'lopose  a 

propose  a  peace.     With  much  parade  the  emblematic 

belts  were  hung  up  and  counted,  and  the  hatchet  was  thrown 

away. 

But  the  peace  proved  delusive.  Unfortunately,  the  Mohawks 
only  had  projjosed  and  conchided  it.  If  the  Senccas  and  the 
other  confederates  refused  to  abide  by  it,  there  was  some  gain 
in  holding  the   Mohawks   alone  to  their  agreement.   ,,,,  , 

*^  *  IWC.  Joguea 

flooues,  who  had  now  come  back  from  France,  was  «p'it  to 
sent,  in  May,  104G,  to  try  to  hold  that  tribe  to  their 
])ledge.     In  a  month  he  was  back  in  Quebec,  bnt  no  great  -  •' n- 
fidence  resulted.     In  August,  he  was  sent  again,  ^  ir  he  '>vai 
waylaid  in  his  path  by  a  wandering  band  of  Mohawks  and  kvi  ;u; 
a  prisoner  to  their  town,  only  to  be  struck  down  as  he   T(,g,_,., 
entered  a  lodge,  whither  he  had  been  invited  to  a  fetist    '^'"'^'''  ^'■''*'' 
Brained  by  a  hatchet  which  had  not  been  thrown  very  far  In 
token  of  amity,  a  soul  singularly  dear  to  Catholic  hearts  passes 
from  history. 

There  was  no  longer  any  doubt  that  the  jVIohawks  were  deter- 
mined for  war  in  alliance  with  their  brothers.  The 
confederates  at  this  time  numbered  ])erhaps  three 
thousand  warriors,  —  such  is  ]\avkmar's  estimate,  —  aad  this 
horde  must  have  been  much  less  in  extent  than  the  Huron  and 
Algonquin  could  oppose  to  them  in  combination,   to  say  no- 


War  opens. 


ill 


■jii   y 


I  '> 


170 


CJiV/lD^l,   1635-1663. 


thing  of  what  the  French  might  add.     The  Iroquois  superiority 
consisted  rather  in  an  iudouiitable  fierceness  concentrated  by  a 


union  of  energies. 


■La.Canidai 


^r-u  ^'   '" ^ 


^'    ■■:%■"     ocijo 


";\jc^^- 


aJ    r^    fi 


A^ 


.O^ 


DUDLKVS  MAP, 


With  allies  so  ineffectual  as  the  northern  tribes  were,  the 
French  could  hardly  hoj)e  for  a  successful  issue  of  the  war. 
They  certainly  had  no  force  of  their  own  to  protect  the  country 


CANADA   EXPOSED. 


171 


0 


"'C 


Za  Oran 

Maid 


) 


which  they  claimed  to  possess.     Their  whole  line,  from  the  St. 
Lawrence  Gulf  to  Lake  Huron,  was  particularly  vul- 
nerable.    The   church   had   pushed  her   missionaries  exposed  to 

in  I  •  i»    •nroads. 

up  the  Sagnenay  to  the  nations  of 
.S3..n§uem.i  the  Porcupine  and  the  White  Fish,  and  if  the 

traders  of  these  distant  tribes  carried  back 
from  Tadoussac,  season  after  season,  some 
remnant  of  the  priests'  instructions,  the  new 
faith  was  far  less  abiding  than  the  fear  of  the 
Iroquois,  from  which  they  did  not  escape  even 
in  their  northernmost  limits.  The  passing  of 
these  marauding  bands  was  constantly  break- 
ing the  peace  along  the  Frenchmen's  northern 
bounds.  Canada  was  scarcely  less  endangered 
along  its  southern  flank.  The  English  were 
seated  along  the  coast  of  Maine,  and  no  one 
yet  was  cpxite  certain  that,  among  the  valleys 
stretching  from  the  sea  towards  the  St.  Law- 
rence, there  might  not  be  a  feasible  approach 
for  an  enemy.  Robert  .  dley,  indeed,  was 
showing  at  this  time,  in  hu  maps,  that  there 
was  a  waterway  to  connect  the  Bay  of  Fundy 
with  the  St.  Lawrence.  Farther  west,  the  ap- 
proach to  Canada  by  Lake  Champiain  was  a 
deadly  opportunity  for  her  inveterate  enemies. 
The  French  h.ad  not  yet  dared  to  confront 
these  foes  along  the  shores  of  Ontario  and 
Erie,  and  the  Canadian  bushian";er  knew  as 
J^^ccj.nccaa  litt'.  of  these  shores  as  Champiain  had  known 

fifteen  years  before.  Lalcmant  liad  described 
the  Niagara  River  in  1G41  without  even  refer- 
ring to  the  great  cataract :  but  Ragueneau  in 
his  Uelation  of  1648  first  juentionod  it  as  of 
^>^  "  frightfid  height."  The;  French  knew  much 
more  of  Winnebago  Lake,  far  more  distant  as 
1^7  it  was,  and  their  pioneers  had  possibly  walked 

from  the  Fox  to  the  Wisconsin,  to  mingle  the 
water  of  the  St.  Lawrence  valley,  drip])ing  from  their  leggings, 
with  the  current  that  reached  in  its  flow  the  tr()})ieal  south. 
The  great  western  track  still  lay  alo)ig  the  Ottawa,  and  among 


Qj 


C  ^r,ctf 


IS:; 


iiili 


>l      i 


: ;    i- 


■'i; 


'  I 


I   t 


ih 


172 


CANADA,   1G35-10GS, 


w 


the  friendly  Hurons.  While  this  tribe  protected  tlie  route,  its 
villages  at  the  same  time  invited  the  Iroquois  attack.  It  was 
soon  to  come. 

In  1648,  a  band  of  the  confederates,  chiefly  Mohawks  and 
Senecas,  invaded  the  Huron  country  in  the  absence  of 

The  Hurons     .  .  .     .     i  i.     i     •'       i  .    « 

attacked,  its  wamors.  ihcy  devastated  one  ot  their  chief  towns 
and  scattered  its  inhabitants.  This  wr.s  in  midsum- 
mer. Winter  came  on  and  gave  a  false  security,  and  before 
it  was  over  the  enemy  fell  upon  St.  Iguace  (164i;^  and  made  a 
more  dreadful  havoc. 

Two  of  the  most  conspicuous  of  the  black-robes  were  here 

among  their  neophytes. 
Gabriel  Lalenmnt,  Paris- 
ian by  birth,  a  professor 
by  training,  had  carried 
into  the  wilderness  the 
delicacy  and  air  of  a  stu- 
dent. Fnther  Brobouf, 
quite  the  reverse  in  aj)- 
pearanci\  a  giant  in  frame, 
brawny  and  active,  was  tit 
to  measure  strength  with 
the  hardiest  savage  whom 
he  taught.  Both  mission- 
aries suunuonod  an  almost 
immeasurable  courage  to 
bear  the  tortures  which 
they  suffered  amid  the 
burning  town. 

The  blow  could  not  bo 
parried,  and  one  after  one 

DiroiiRh  the  oval  iu  front.]  .  i         <«  r,  1 1  , 

^  ^  is'o  hi! t'en  Huron  towns 

succumbed  or  were  ubandoned.  The  .i;.s])ersjil  of  the  sufferers 
nndde-  ^^'^^  Complete.  The  Hurons  ivcro  destroyed  as  a  peo- 
Btroyed.  ^jg  Sucli  as  survivcd  Hed  east  and  wt!st,  —  some  will 
yet  be  encountered  as  we  follow  future  exploi'crs  towards  the 
distant  west :  some  gathered  under  the  prcteetion  of  the  French 
in  the  neighborhood  of  Quebec  ;  while  others  purchased  innnu- 
nity  from  further  spoliation  by  migrating  to  the  Seneca  country 
and  merging  themselves  in  tlie  Iroquoian  confederacy. 


IJKfilSEUF. 
[His  bust  iu  silver  at  Quebec.     His  skull  can  be  seen 


DRUILLETTES  AND  ELIOT. 


173 


The  Huron  country  never  again  knew  the  traces  of  this  peo- 
ple, and  only  the  modern  archaeologist,  wandering  between  the 
latter-day  villages  of  an  alien  race,  finds  in  the  forests  the  evi- 
dences of  the  former  occupants. 

No  event  in  Canadian  history  had  heretofore  attracted  so 
much  attention  in  Europe  as  this  foreboding  dispersal  of  the 
Hurons.  The  Relations  of  Kagueneau,  which  gave  the  details 
of  this  disaster,  were  eagerly  enough  sought  to  warrant  editions 
in  French  at  Lille  as  well  as  at  Paris,  and  for  European  schol- 
ars in  general  there  was  demand  for  a  third  edition  in  Latin. 

The  Canadians  themselves  had  never  before  felt  so  distress- 
ingly the  results  which  followed  in  the  train  of  Champlain's 
infelicitous  onset  at  Ticonderoga  half  a  century  before.     Their 
rulers  were  even  ready  to  turn  to  the  English  for  help.     Four 
years  before   (1647),  Winthrop  of    Massachusetts   had   made 
advances  looking  to  a  treaty  of  commerce  with  the  powers  at 
Quebec,  prompted  perhaps  by  the  presence  there  of  La  Tour 
of  Acadia,  who  had  had,  a  few  j^ears  before,  some  pleasant  rela- 
tions with  Boston.    The  English  governor's  death,  however,  had 
intervened  to  prevent  any  such  consummation.    There  was  now 
an  opportunity  for  even  a  closer  alliance  than  trade  coidd  sug- 
gest, and   Father  Druillettes,  who  was  serving:  at  a 
mission  near  the  sources  ot  the  rivers  in  Maine,  was  iiiettessent 
sent  (1G51)  down  their  courses  to  the  sea,  with  in- 
struction to  make  his  way  to  Boston  for  a  conference.      He 
was   well   received   at   the  Puiitau   capital.      His  ambassado- 
rial office  prote(;ted  him  from  laws  which  that  community  had 
sought  to  level  against  Romanists.     A  Boston  merchant  even 
provided  a  locked  chamber  for  Druillettes's  devotions,  where 
he  could  set  up  his  altar  unobserved.     Eliot,  the  New 
England  apostle  to  the  Indians,  quite  opened  his  heart  the  Apostie 
to  the  priest,  and  the  two  mutually  and  with  apparent 
intc  rchange  of  sympathy  rehearsed  their  experiences  in  a  com- 
lou  vocation,  for  Eliot  had  been  five  years  preaching  to  the 
Natioks,  and  h.«   lad  now  four  hundred  neophytes  in  his  fold. 

The  contrasts  of  this  meeting  of  the  Jesuit  and  the  Puritan 
a,re  some  of  the  most  striking  in  our  colonial  liistory.  With 
kindred  aims,  they  leaned  far  from  each  other  in  their  re})re- 
sentative  methods.  It  was  the  kind  of  opposition  which  Doyle 
describes  in  his  Puritan   Colonies.     "  The  French  missionary 


,    1 ' 


)\ 


i 


t' 


' 


174 


CANADA,   16,15-1063. 


E  M 


~i\ 


U: 


well-nigh  broke  with  civilization ;  he  toned  down  all  that  was 
spiritual  in  his  religion  and  emphasized  all  that  was  sensual,  till 
he  had  assimilated  it  to  the  wants  of  the  savage.  The  better 
and  worse  features  of  Puritanism  forbade  a  triumph  won  on 
such  terms."  When,  just  before  this  (1649),  Parliament  had 
established  the  "  Society  for  the  Propagation  of  the  Gospel  in 
New  England,"  the  new  organization  expected  to  act  largely 
through  the  federal  conmiissioners  of  the  colonics,  for  the  min- 
isters and  magistrates  were  one  in  their  life.  The  story  of  civil 
and  religious  exertion  in  New  France  is  largely  one  of  variance. 

Druillettes  on  his  part  was  struck  both  in  his  intercourse  at 
His  obser-  Bostou  and  Plyuioutli  —  where  Governor  Bradford  on 
vatioug.  jj^  Friday  gave  him  a  dinner  of  fish  —  with  the  thrift 
of  the  New  England  character.  He  marked  their  numbers, 
which  in  contrast  with  Canada  seemed  prodigious  to  him,  and 
saw  how  their  population  was  now  increasing  by  nature  and 
not  by  immigration,  lie  found  such  a  people  an  instructive 
contrast  to  the  thin  settlements  at  a  few  points  along  the  St. 
Lawrence.  "  The  zeal  of  pi'opagandism,"  says  Parkman,  in 
commenting  upon  this  observation  of  the  Jesuit,  "  and  the  fur 
trade  were  the  vital  forces  of  New  France.  Of  her  feeble  pop- 
ulation, the  best  j)art  was  bound  to  perpetual  chastity,  while 
tlie  fur  traders  and  those  in  th«ir  service  rarely  brought  their 
wives  to  the  wilderness.  The  fni'  trader,  moreover,  is  always 
the  worst  of  colonists,  since  the  increase  of  population,  by  dimin- 
ishing the  number  of  the  fur-bearing  animals,  is  adverse  to  his 
His  mission  iutt'rests."  Druillettcs's  missiou,  howcvcr,  failed.  The 
fails.  coniniissioners   of  the  united  New  England  colonies, 

to  whom  the  appeal  ultimately  went,  considered  it  bad  policy 
to  divert  the  Mohawk  from  his  northern  jjath,  and  to  expose 
their  own  frontiers  to  his  ferocity. 

Not  only  had  the  Huron  villages  been  destroyed,  but  the  Iro- 
quois had  depopulated  the  In<lian  eountrv  all  along  the  watei"- 
way  from  Montreal  to  Georgian  Bay.  Uiey  had  rendered 
passage  so  unsafe  between  the  rapids  above  Montreal  and  Ta- 
doussac  that  the  fur-trade  stations  from  Three  Rivers 
to  the  Saguenay  were  in  effect  abolished.  The  Iro- 
quois had  pushed  with  more  audacity  than  ever  up  the  gloomy 
channel  of  the  Saguenay,  and  had  driven  the  upper  Moutagnais 


Iroquois 
raids. 


f  r 


IROQUOIS  MISSIONS. 


175 


back  to  Hudson's  Bay.  Everywhere  nn-th  of  the  St.  Lawrence 
and  Ontario,  Algonquin  and  French  alike  shuddered  at  the 
name  of  the  confederates.  The  missionaries  had  \yithdrawn 
from  their  outposts,  and  they  told  in  the  settlements  of  the 
horrible  sufferings  which  their  brothers  had  undergone  at  the 
Iroquois  stake. 

When  commerce  and  the  missionary  spirit  was  at  this  low 
ebb,  and  the  fugitive  French  from  exposed  positions  had 
thronged  into  the  settlements,  an  Iroquois  embassy  appeared 
with  a  proposition  for  peace.  They  further  offered  an  invita- 
tion to  the  inactive  missionaries  once  more  to  set  up  the  cross 
in  the  villages  of  the  confederates.  This  unexpected  step  had 
not  been  taken  without  some  motive.  The  Huron  s  whom  the 
Iroquois  had  adopted  had  brought  among  them  a  faith  drawn 
from  Christian  teaching,  which  adversity  had  not  wholly  oblit- 
erated. Such  sharers  of  this  belief  had  in  some  degree  ac- 
customed the  proud  Iroquois  to  the  emotions  which  they  had 
never  succeeded  in  subduing  by  torture,  and  the  constancy  of 
the  missionary  had  become  to  their  savage  mind  a  virtue,  worth 
acquiring  even  from  a  foe. 

There  was  another  more  prudent  impulse.  The  Iroquois  had 
now  turned  their  warring  energies  against  the  Eries  and  Sus- 
quehannas,  so  that  they  could  no  longer  be  the  middlemen  of 
those  tribes  in  furnishing  furs  to  the  Dutch  at  Albany.  They 
were  thus  cut  off  from  the  profits  of  such  a  commerce.  Their 
only  compensation  lay  in  restoring  such  a  trade  with  their 
northern  neighbors  along  the  St.  Lawrence  and  beyond. 

The  peace  gave  an  opportunity,  heretofore  denied,  for  a  recon- 
naissance of  the  southern  shores  of  Ontario.     Father  Poncet, 
who  had  been  one  of  the  first  of  the  missionaries  to  answer  the 
ai)])eal  of  the  Iroquois,  returning  (1653)  in  the  in-   p^^pg^ 
clement  season  from  the  Mohawk  villages,  passed  by   '^^• 
trail  along  the  lake  shore  and  then  descended  the  river  to  Mon- 
treal, —  the  first  of  white  men  it  is  thought  to  view  the  Thou- 
sand Islands  of  the  St.  Lawrence.    The  next  year  (July,  1054), 
Father  Simon  Le  Moyne  entered  for  the  first  time  ,^,-4    l^, 
the  Oswego  River,  and  passed  thiis  into  the  heart  of  !f,u^ng  the 
the  Iroquois  country.      During  Le  Moyne's  sojourn  ^''°i"°'^- 

savages,  he  found  a  Christian's  delight  —  as  the 


among  these 


■  i-ii 


-I 


■ 


17G 


CANADA,  1035-1003. 


ivii; 


w 


fM  ■! 


1  ! 


Imwks  nt 
tack  tlie 
French. 


term  was  understood  —  in  urging  the  Iroquois  to  further  dar- 
ing against  the  Eries.  In  September,  ho  was  back  in  Mon- 
ti-eal,  and  found  his  warring  impulse  approved,  in  the  belief 
that  such  diplomacy  would  keep  the  confederates  to  their  pact 
with  the  French. 

Iroquois  constancy  was  hardly  of  such  stable  quality,  and  the 
Mohawks,  who  had  kept  aloof  from  the  final  agreement,  felt 
themselves  as  free  as  ever  to  fall  as  they  could  on  anything 
human  along  the  borders  of  the  St.  Lawrence.  Faith  and  con- 
fidence could  not  long  subsist  under  such  a  fast-and-looso  policy. 
iGM.  Mo-  I^  105G,  the  Mohawks,  jealous  of  a  movement  by  the 
Onondagas  to  receive  a  French  colony,  intercepted  its 
pioneers  on  their  way  thither.  They  feigned  regret 
after  they  had  done  their  mischief,  and  then  went  skulking 
down  the  St.  Lawrence  to  fall  unsuspected  upon  the  poor 
I  Iiu'ons,  who  were  clustered  at  the  Island  of  Orleans,  in  fancied 
security.  The  same  vagabonds  plundered  some  outlying  houses 
of  the  French,  near  the  rock  of  (Quebec. 

During  the  few  years  of  the  Jesuits'  missions  in  Now  York, 
the  priests  had  not  failed  to  notice  the  departure  of  Iroquois 
Tales  of  the  Ij^uds  towards  the  southwest.  They  learned  that  this 
southwest,  i-oute  took  tlicir  warv'^rs  to  the  affluents  of  a  stream 
which  emptied  finally  into  that  grt;at  river  of  the  west  so  often 
magnified  in  the  Indian  bpeueh.  It  led,  as  they  told  the  mis- 
sionaries, to  a  region  whore  otlier  whiti^  ])eoplo  lived,  who  said 
prayers  like  the  black-robes,  and  called  their  flocks  to  nuiss  by 

bell.     Did  tliis  mean  the  Spaniards  of  tliat  indefinite  region 

hich  was  called  Florida,  and  skirted  the  IMexican  (Julf,  or  that 

other  region  known  to  other  brothers  of  the  Soeit^ty  of  Jesus 

along  the  Gulf  of  California  ?     It  was  the  great  geographical 

problem  of  the  vast  interior  of  North  Americii. 

The  Dutch  dominie,  Megapolensis,  tells  us  that  the  Jesuit 
Le  Moyne  had.  in  his  wandering  among  the  missions,  found  a 
spring  where  oil  flowed  on  the  water.  This  has  been 
sujjposod  to  refer  to  the  modern  Oil  C'reelv,  a  ti-ibutary 
of  the  Alleghany  River.  This,  if  true,  establislu>s  the  fact  that 
the  Jesuit  had  at  this  date  passed  the  divide,  and  had  reached 
a  part  of  the  great  valley  of  the  Mississippi. 

This  brief   occupancy  of  the  Iroquois  field  by  the  Jesuits 


Oil  springs. 


C 
0 


PRIEST  AND   TRADER. 


177 


served  to  niike  it  apparent  that  these  confederates  held  in  their 
country  one  of  the  most  striking  geographical  vantage-grounds 
on  the  continent.     The  northern  incline  of  their  tei- 

,1  II*  <•      1       o        Geogrnplilcal 

ritory  swept  its  waters  into  the  broad  basin  of  the  bt.  vantnRe  of 
Lawrence  and  the  lakes.  Eastward,  the  Mohawk  could 
bear  their  canoes  to  the  Hudson  and  the  Atlantic.  Southward, 
the  sources  of  the  Delaware  and  Susquehanna  rippled  onward 
to  the  great  bayn  that  indented  the  coast  at  Pennsylvania  and 
Virginia.  To  the  southwest  lay  the  channels  that  fed  the  Ohio 
and  the  vaster  stream  which  gathered  its  waters  from  the  Rocky 
Mountains  and  beyond  Lake  Superior,  and  glided  on  to  the 
Mexican  Gulf. 


i 


1 


This  enormous  reach  of  diverging  waterways  di  aieh  to 
give  the  Iroquois  their  dominance  as  a  confederation ;  and  it 
was  thus  perceived  by  the  French.     When  later  the 

1    .  f     ^  1  •  1  •        TJiiJergtood 

Jesuits  were  driven  out  of  the  country,  this  geographic  by  the 
conception  was  well  understood  by  Talon,  the  most 
enterprising  and  ambitious  leader  which  the  French  in  America 
ever  knew.     But  the  time  was  not  come  for  the  exploration 
westward  along  these  tributaries  of  the  Ohio. 

It  was  mainly  the  priest  who  had  thus  far  watched  the  west- 
ering paths  from  the  Iroquois  haunts.  It  was  the  trader  who  was 
to  lead  by  the  more  northern  routes.  "  Not  a  cape  wavS  turned," 
says  Bancroft,  in  speaking  of  these  western  adventures,  "  nor  a 
river  entered,  but  a  Jesuit  led  the  way."  The  rhetoric  is  too 
sweeping.  It  was  not  always  the  Jesuit  when  a 
priest,  and  oftener  than  not,  the  trader  rather  than 
the  priest.  AYhat  gold  was  at  the  south  among  the 
Spaniards,  beaver-skins  were  at  the  north  among  the  French. 
The  Canadian  (jcntUhoimne  devoted  himself  to  the  venturesome 
pursuit  for  furs,  and  became  a  roving  bushranger,  followed  by 
men  with  packs.  The  priest  sought  the  trader's  escort,  and  fol- 
lowed as  occasion  provided  him  a  seat  in  the  canoe.  Sometimes, 
indeed,  the  man  with  a  ])ack  and  the  man  in  a  cassock  were 
rivals  in  the  advance,  and  followed  the  same  trail ;  but  oftener 
the  trader  was  ahead.  Most  of  the  Catholic  writers  are  fond  of 
claiming  this  pioneer  work  for  the  missionaries ;  but  the  Abbe 
Ferland  is  better  informed  when  he  allows  that  it  was  oftenest 
the  wood-ranger  who  opened  the  track  for  the  priest. 


Priest  and 
trader  as 
pioneers. 


f '•  I 


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I'll 

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■  >! 


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Photographic 

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23  WEST  MAIN  STREET 

WEBSTER,  N.Y.  MSM 

(716)  873-4503 


^'^"1?^ 

V 


178 


CANADA,   1635-166S. 


t!  '.         '■ 


The  dispersion  of  the  Hurons  aff ecteU  both  the  priest  and  the 
trader.  That  portion  of  this  afflicted  people  which  had  gone 
west  sought  the  islands  of  Green  Bay,  but  only  to  be  The  Hurons 
pushed  farther  by  their  pursuers.  They  went  on  till  "'»"'^«''- 
they  reached  the  lowas  of  the  plains.  Here,  in  the  open  coun- 
try, they  longed  for  the  forest,  and  turned  north  to  the  region 
of  the  Sioux.  Provoking  the  enmity  of  that  tribe,  they  turned 
again  south,  and  found  temporary  respite  on  an  island  in  the 
Mississippi,  below  Lake  Pepin.  Passed  by  their  dispersion 
beyond  the  reach  of  the  priest,  the  missionaries  sought  the 


VISSCHER,   1C52. 

distant  west  to  find  others  to  convert.  The  old  country  of  the 
Hurons  stripped  of  its  population,  the  trader  also  sought  the 
more  distant  west,  to  open  his  trade  with  other  peoples. 


9 '        ' 

! 


But  before  following  new  adventurers  to  the  west,  let  us  look 
at  affairs  as  they  were  going  on  in  the  settlements, 
genson,  gov-  A  ucw  govcmor,  the  Vicomte  d'Argenson,  had  arrived 
in  1658  to  enter  upon  a  difficult  task.  He  found  the 
Iroquois  again  on  the  alert,  and  he  had  scarce  a  hundred  men  to 
bear  arms  against  them.  He  found  the  priestly  orders  which 
ruled  at  Montreal  and  Quebec  by  no  means  at  peace  with  each 


M 


■>  1 


LAVAL. 


179 


other.     There  had  been  a  struggle  between  the  Sulpitians  and 
Jesuits  to  secure  a  partisan  bishop,  and  the  Jesuits  had  been 
the  most  influential  with  the  Pope.     Laval,  the  titular  bishop 
of  Petraea,  arrived  in  June,  1659,  to  assume  the  chief  i^^^,  „. 
ecclesiastical  power  in  Canada.     He  entered  upon  his  '''*••  ^*^" 


duties  in  a  militant  spirit,  and  the  civil  rule  did  not  wait  long 
to  feel  the  severity  of  his  power. 

The  country  which  Laval  would  lay  at  his  feet  if  he  could 
was  hardly  comprehended  by  Eui'ope,  except  in  France,  and  not 
everywhere  there.     Under  the  influence  of  tlie  lielations  which 


I    '3i 


i      I. 


l:V 


i  ..■' 


180 


CANADA,   1635-1663. 


U  I 


■'      !i 


^'S      il 


the  Jesuits  had  annually  printed  in  Paris,  the  royal  cartographer 
had  improved  upon  the  geography  as  Champlain  had 
France,  left  it.  Sausou,  who  had  been  for  nearly  ten  years 
the  official  geographer  of  France,  embodied  in  his 
American  map  of  1656  all  the  material  which  he  could  com- 
mand. His  configuration  of  the  lower  lakes  had  entirely  su- 
persc'.dd  the  drafts  of  Champlain ;  but  he  had  not  ventured 


HEYLYN'S  COSMOGRAPHIE,   1C5G-C2. 

upon  more  than  a  vague  extension  of  those  waters  farther  to 
the  west,  leaving  these  parts  to  be  improved  in  his  later  i*evi- 
Banson,  sious,  ten  ycars  afterwards.  The  Gottfried  map  of 
Kaeuf*^^'  1655  showed  how  great  an  advance  Sanson's  better 
creuxius.      knowledge  could  accomplish  in  1656 ;  but  such  promi- 


CARTOGRAPHY. 


181 


nent  cartographers  among  Sanson's  contemporaries  as  the 
Englishman,  Heylyn,  and  Blaeu  and  Yisscher  of  the  Low  Coun- 
tries and  Germany,  were  apparently  ignorant  of  what  even 
Champlain  had  done.  Blaeu  for  some  years  continued  to  make 
a  mere  lace-work  of  rivers  stand  for  the  great  basin  of  the  St. 
Lawrence.  When  Creuxius  summarized  the  narratives  of  the 
Jesuits  and  made  a  map  to  accompany  his  Histoire  du  Ca- 
nada^ he  found  that  Sanson  had  in  the  main  done  the  work  for 
him.  He  still  left  Michigan  and  Superior  incomplete.  He 
was  late  enough  (1660-1664)  to  have  made  something  out  of 
the  stories  of  the  Ohio,  which  Le  Moyne  had  brought  from  the 


VISSCHER,  1C60(?). 

Iroquois  country,  but  he  passed  them  all  by.  He  eveii  failed 
to  recognize  the  divide  which  those  who  passed  to  Huron  by 
the  Ottawa  route  had  made  so  well  known.  These  were  small 
faults  compared  with  the  entire  absence  of  every  development 
since  Champlain,  which  Du  Val  in  the  same  year  rep- 
resented in  his  map.  This  contemporary  cartographer 
shows  how  slowly  the  map-makers  of  Europe  moved  forward 
to  a  conception  of  this  great  northern  valley. 

The  time  had  come  to  carry  still  farther  the  western  verge  of 
the  map,  as  Sanson  and  Creuxius  had  left  it. 


!i 


•■l\l 


,'     4 


'A 


m 

■  i  ■:  ^ 

:  ■ 

I 

i 

M '  ;■ 


182 


CANADA,  1635-1663. 


Medard  Chouart,  Sieur  des  Grosseilliers,  had  come  as  a  lad 
to  Canada,  and  his  youni?  manhood  was  passed   iu 

OroaaeiUiers.  .  ^         e  ■,  xi       tt 

learnmg  woodcraft  as  a  trader  at  ijake  Huron.  As 
early  as  1645,  he  seems  to  have  dreamed  that  a  route  from  the 
Great  Lakes  to  Hudson  Bay  could  be  found.    By  1653,  he  had 


married  and  settled  down  among  the  voyageurs  who  congre- 
RadiMon  S^^^^  ^^  Three  Rivers.  Here,  two  years  earlier,  Pierre 
d' Esprit,  the  Sieur  Radisson,  had  arrived,  a  lad 
when  Grosseilliers  had  reached  man's  estate.  In  one  of  Ra- 
disson's  expeditions  the  Iroquois  had  captured  him,  and  had 


lad 


LAKE  SUPERIOR. 


183 


1654. 


Stories  of  a 

weatem 

river. 


1C6C. 


tried  to  hold  hitn  by  adoption ;  but  he  eluded  their  watch,  and 
escaped  to  the  Dutch  at  Albany.  Here  he  was  sent  down  to 
Manhattan,  and,  going  to  Europe,  he  had  returned  to  Three 
Rivers  in  1654,  to  find  that  his  sister  had  become  the  wife  of 
Grosseilliers.     This  brought  the  two  men  into  close  relations. 

At  this  juncture,  there  were  fresh  stories  of  a  great  river  at 
the  west  flowing  to  the  China  Sea.  The  Mere  de  I'ln- 
carnation  says  that  the  reports  had  come  from  distant 
tribes.  This  was,  perhaps,  the  earliest  mention  of  such  a  river 
obtained  from  the  western  tribes,  since  Nicolet  had 
reported  it,  twenty  years  before.  We  read  in  the 
Relation  of  1654  that  it  was  only  nine  days  from  the 
country  about  Green  Bay  to  the  sea  which  separates  America 
from  China. 

We  know  that  in  August,  1654,  two  French  traders  went 
west  and  penetrated  the  country  beyond  Lake  Mich- 
igan, and  in  August,  1656,  they  led  back  an  Ojibway 
flotilla  with  a  burden  of  furs,  and  reached  Quebec.  It  has 
been  a  question  who  these  daring  Frenchmen  were.  Suite  con- 
jectures they  were  the  two  brothers-in-law  from  Three  Rivers. 
They  may  have  been  of  the  party  of  thirty  Frenchmen  who 
started  for  Lake  Superior  in  1656,  accompanied  by  the  priests 
Garreau  and  Druillettes.  These  last  were  attacked  on  the  way 
by  Iroquois ;  Garreau  was  killed,  and  the  expedition  failed. 

There  is  much  less  certainty  that  at  about  the  same  time,  as 
is  claimed,  some  Englishmen  piished  west    from  the 
headwaters  of  the    James    River  in  Virginia,   and  English 
passed  the  mountains.     The  story  is   told  in  Coxe's 
Caroliina  as  coming  from  a  memorial  presented  to  the  Eng- 
lish monarch  in  1699,  and  the  exploit  is  ascribed  to  a  Colonel 
Abraham  Wood,  who  had  been  ordered  to  open  trade  with  the 
western  Indians,  which  he  did  in  several  successive   journeys. 
No  satisfactory  confirmation  of  the  tale  has  ever  been  pro- 
duced. 

There  is  no  question  that  Grosseilliers  wintered  on  the  shores 
of  Lake  Superior  in  1658-59,  where  he  had  fallen  in  L^^g  gyp^. 
with  some  of  the  Sioux  and  had  heard  of  the  great  "*""'  ^•^-^^• 
river.     He  was  again  on  the  St.  Lawrence  in  1659,  and  was 
there   joined  by  Radisson.      A  new   expedition  was  1559    ^^^ 
planned,  and  the  two  started  once  more  with  an  es-  «»p«<**"<"»- 


■:.■ 


Ul 


■  ;M.i 


!  i-.-lnii 


I    I:' 


■i  '<* 


!    I 


i|^  I 


u 


184 


CANADA,  1635-1663. 


coi't.  They  were  too  conspicuous  a  band  to  escape  the  Iroquois, 
and  it  was  soon  decided  that  the  savages  could  be  better  eluded 
by  a  smaller  following.  So  with  a  few  Indian  guides  the  two 
traders  pushed  on  together.      The  narrative  of  their  journey 


CREUXIUS, 


enables  us  to  follow  them  along  the  southern  shore  of  Lake  Su- 
perior, where  the  pictured  rocks  excited  their  wonder.  Radis- 
son  records  that  he  was  the  first  Christian  who  had  seen  them. 


ti 
a 
a 


i"  ! 


LA   POINTE. 


185 


|is, 

(1 

IVO 


■Su- 
lis- 


They  went  on  to  La  Pointe,  —  the  modem  Ashland,  —  and  here, 
tarried  awhile  for  their  Huron  guides  to  visit  some  kinsmen 
at  the  south,  where  we  have  seen  those  Indian  wanderers  had 
already  been  gathered. 


DATED  \m\ 


AVhere  the  two  Frenchmen  went  after  this  is  in  dispute. 
There  are  those  who  have  held  that  they  pushed  directly  south 
from  Superior,  and  others  have  contended  that  they  returned  by 


I   i 


1  'i  I 
!  ,1  ■ 


!:l: 


m 


Hi 


1 1 


;i:v 


li! 


r  i 


t ''. 


m 


-m 


i  V 


180 


CANADA,  1635-1663. 


the  Sault  Ste.  Marie,  and,  passing  the  Straits  of  Mackinaw,  went 
up  Gi*een  Bay  and  took  the  route  by  the  Fox  and  Wisconsin. 
Radisson  himself  says :  "  We  went  to  the  great  river  which 
divides  itself  in  two,  where  the  Hurons  had  retired.  The  river 
is  called  the  Forked  because  it  has  two  branches,  one  towards 
the  west,  the  other  towards  the  south,  which  we  believe  runs 
towards  Mexico."  They  seem  to  have  encountered  a  band  of 
these  fugitive  Hurons,  who  represented  the  river  which  passed 
AttheMu-  ^he  island  where  they  lived  to  be  as  large  as  the  St. 
sisaippi.  Lawrence.  If  the  two  traders  reached  the  true  Mis- 
sissippi, as  some  have  conjectured,  they  saw  it  a  dozen  years 
before  Joliet  floated  on  its  waters. 

They  did  not  push  very  far  in  this  direction,  as  it  would  ap- 
LakeSupe-  pear,  but  turned  north  and  wandered  about  the  ex- 
'*"'•  trerae  western  end  of  Lake  Superior,  and  were  thus 

the  earliest  to  define  its  western  limits.  Here  they  found  them- 
selves among  the  Sioux,  and  heard  their  strange  tongue. 

Charlevoix  at  a  later  day  intimates  that  in  their  first  contact 
with  the  language  of  this  Dacotah  family,  the  French  had  fan- 
cied they  perceived  a  Chinese  accent.  They  thought  also  that 
they  observed  in  the  customs  of  the  Sioux  something  like  the 
habits  of  the  Tartars.  There  was  a  story  circulating  at  the 
time,  as  a  part  of  the  argument  to  prove  the  close  connection  of 
Asia  and  the  Asiatic  people  with  the  more  distant  American 
tribes,  which  the  French  reached.  It  was  to  the  effect  that  a 
Jesuit,  Father  Grelon,  after  having  served  at  a  mission  on  Lake 
Huron,  had  later  been  stationed  in  Chinese  Tartary,  where  he 
had  met  a  woman  who  had  belonged  to  his  flock  in  Canada. 
The  theory  was  that  she  had  been  sold  from  tribe  to  tribe,  and 
so  had  passed  on  to  Asia,  which  could  only  have  happened,  as 
was  contended,  by  the  two  continents  approaching  each  other 
nearly,  somewhere  in  the  north,  or  being  in  fact  one. 

The  result  of  this  intercourse  of  Radisson  and  Grosseilliers 

with  the  Indians  of  this  remote  west  was  that  in  the 

iriOO.   At 

Three  Riv-  summcr  of  1660  they  led  a  flotilla  of  sixty  Lake  Su- 
perior canoes  back  to  Three  Rivers.  The  crews  of 
the  summer  ships  awaiting  their  cargoes  were  glad  of  the  furs. 
The  voyageurs  lingering  about  the  post  found  much  interest  in 
the  stories  which  were  told  of  these  remoter  tribes,  and  of  their 
strange  tongue. 


GROSSEILLIEIiS  AND  RADISSOiV. 


187 


Grosseilliers,  making  a  new  outfit,  started  west  once  more  in 
August  (1660).      He  was   accompanied  bv  several 
l^renchmen,  and  gave  escort  to  an  aged  JcHuit  mis-  ■«iiueri 
sionary,  Rene  Menard.     The  party  i)assed  the  winter  witii  m^- 
among  some  Ottawas  on  the  southern  bounds  of  Lake 
Superior.     These  Indians  did  not  prove  very  tractable  converts, 
and  the  missionary  determined  to  seek  a  remnant  of  the  liurons 
to  the  south,  which  he  had  heard  of  as  living  somewhere  in 
what  is  now  the  State  of  Wisconsin.     Menard  started  with  a 
single  servant.     The  route  was  intricate  and  laborious,  by  slug- 
gish streams,  through  tangled  swamps,  and  it  involved  many 
portages.      In  crossing  one  of  them,  the  aged  priest  lost  the 
trail  of  his  companions,  and  was  never  seen  again.     A  camp 
kettle  which  he  carried  with  him,  together  with  his  breviary 
and  cassock,  were  later  found  in  different  places  among  the 
western  tribes.    It  was  never  known  whether  he  died 
by  exposure  or  was  killed  by  wandering  savages.     If 
Perrot  can  be  correctly  interpreted,  Menard  and  his  compan- 
ions had  already  got  a  sight  of  the  great  river. 

We  learn  from  Boucher  that  all  of   the  party  who  accom- 
panied Grosseilliers  in   1660  to  the  wilderness,  and  oroweii- 
who  were  still  alive,  returned  in  the  summer  of  1663  re'urnr^^ 
to  the  settlements,  with  new  conceptions  of  the  geog-  ^'^• 
raphy  of  that  remote  region. 

It  was  in  1660  that  the  earliest  census  of  Canada  was  made, 
and  this  shows  a  total  of  3,418  souls,  and  an  appreciable  part 
of  this  number  had  been  born  on  the  soil.  The  inhabitants 
of  New  England,  at  the  same  time,  numbered  not  far  from 
eighty  thousand.  The  Indian  element  was  not  included  in 
either  calculation;  and  in  Canada,  taking  the  valley  below 
Lake  Huron,  the  savages  had  never  before  borne  so  small  a 
proportion  to  those  of  European  origin.  The  statement  may 
possibly  be  exaggerated  that  neither  along  the  Ottawa  route, 
nor  on  the  shores  of  Lake  Huron,  was  there  an  Indian  to  be 
found ;  but  it  is  certain  that  there  could  be  but  few.  "  To  such 
an  extent,"  says  Father  Jocker,  "  the  daring  and  resoluteness 
of  a  few  thousand  savages  had  prevailed  over  an  iroquois 
enemy  more  than  ten-fold  their  own  numbers  and  not  p"""****- 
wanting  in  warlike  qualities,  but  incapable  of  combined  action 


1  ■ 


'hf 


n 

■■  4 

m 

'n 

:      7     i 

! 


188 


CANADA,   16J5-W:3. 


and  destitute  of  able  leaders."  TIuh  had  been  accomplished  by 
a  body  of  Iroquois,  reduced  at  this  time  to  scarcely  more  than 
twelve  hundred  warriors,  with  perhaps  a  thousand  savage  asso- 
ciates, made  by  ado])tion  their  helpers  and  dependents.  Even 
such  a  depletion  of  their  numbers  did  not  prevent  their  still  in- 
vesting the  vicinity  of  Montreal,  and  even  Quebec,  with  their 
prowlers,  so  that  for  the  denizens  of  those  posts  to  venture  be- 
yond support  was  to  invite  destruction.  Fathers  Dablon  and 
Druillettes,  ascending  the  Saguenay  to  its  sources  in  16G0,  found 
thai  beyond  the  Lake  of  St.  John  and  along  the  shores  of  Mis- 
tassin,  the  Montagnais  crouched  in  fear  of  the  Iroquois. 


r  5; 


IS': 


an 

S((- 

en 
in- 
eir 

be- 
nd 
lul 


V  ,» 


CHAPTER  IX. 

REOKOANIZED    CANADA. 
1GG3-1G72. 

Meanwhile,  a  political  change  hail  come  over  Canada. 
Maz<arin  liad  died  in  1G61,  and  Colbert,  then  a  man  cnn^rt, 
somewhat  over  forty,  had  been  made  comptroller  of  '"*'' 
finance  and  minister  of  marine.  He  was  a  forceful  character. 
He  brought  administrative  clearness  and  pluck  to  bear  on 
industrial  and  commercial  problems.  New  France  was  soon  to 
feel  the  influence  of  a  controlling  spirit  in  old  France. 

In   1061,  an  old   soldier,  Baron  Dubois   d'Avaugour,  had 
arrived  at  Quebec   as  governor.      He  was  a  brisk 
administrator,  of  unceremonious  habits.     He  was  not 
the  man  to  stand  in  awe  of  Laval,  and  the  two  held  adverse 
views  as  respects  the  propriety  of  selling  liquor  to  hu  contest 
the  Indians.     A  struggle  was  the  consequence.     The  "''"'  ^'"''' 
ecclesiastic  sought  to  coerce  the  governor  by  the  terrors  of  ex- 
communication, but  the  soldier  was  not  alarmed.     So  Laval 
went  to  Paris  and  succeeded  in  getting  D'Avaugour  recalled. 
The  Sieur  de  M<;zy  was  appointed  in  his  place,  —  a  man 
destined  in  turn  to  become  Laval's  tormentor.     The  m.  zy  rov- 
ecclesiastic  and  his  civil   associate   reached   Quebec 
September  15,  1663,  and  on  the  18th  the  governor  carried  out 
the  churchman's  policy  by  an  edict  against  the  liquor  traffic. 
The  Jesuits  had  righteously  triumphed. 

D'Avaugour  had  in  his  short  term  of  service  risen  to  a  high 
conception  of  what  Canada  under  fitting  patronage  might  be- 
come. Such  a  portal  as  the  St.  Lawrence,  he  said  to  Colbert, 
belonged  to  the  grandest  empire  of  the  world.  He  urged  the 
minister  to  send  out  soldiers.  They  could  build  forts,  root  out 
the  Iroquois,  he  said,  and  then  be  turned  into  colonists.  Though 
a  Inmdred  families  —  counting  five  hundi*ed  souls  —  were  for- 
warded by  the  king,  with  the  view  of  maintaining  them  a  year, 


D'Avaugour 
governor. 


•I 
■I 


-: 


!  ii 


\m 


■'% 


190 


REORGANIZED  CANADA,  1663-1672. 


If 

113 

ha 


ir 


h.4 


'mi 


1 1 


''H  r 


!     ! 


i    \ 


it  was  yet  some  years  before  the  necessary  military  force  to  put 
the  colony  in  security  could  be  spared  from  France. 

Just  at  this  time  (1663),  the  great  change  in  the  administra- 
1663.  The  *^ve  control  of  the  country  took  place.  The  Hundred 
Ass^u^B  Associates  abandoned  their  charter,  and  (February  24 ) 
theu^^°°  New  France  was  restored  to  the  crown.  In  April  the 
charter.        \i\ng  Created  a  sovereign  council  to  administer  the 


COLBERT. 

[From  Suite's  Canadiens-Fratifais,  vol.  iii.] 

government  of  the  new  royal  province.  Quebec,  which  was 
made  the  capital,  was  then  a  town  of  800  people,  out  of  the 
2500  which  constituted  the  population  of  the  colony. 

But  a  more  comprehensive  plan  was  ripening,  under  Colbert's 
instigation,  and  on  May  24,  1664,  the  monarch  instituted  the 
great  Company  of  the  West,  to  govern  "  for  the  glory  of  God 


i4  1 


TRACY,  COURCELLES,  AND  TALON. 


191 


)Ut 

ra- 
•ed 

;he 
;be 


\i-%- 


vas 
the 

rt's 
the 


and  the  honor  of  the  French  king  "  the  vast  range  of  lands  in 
America,  to  which  the  king  laid  clr.im.    This  extent  in- 
eluded  in  North  America  all  N  ;w  France  from  Hud-  pany  of  the 
son's  Bay  to  Virginia   and   Florida,  embracing   the 
spaces  back  of  the  Alleghanies  preempted  in  the  English  char- 
ters, and  throughout  which  the  new  company  was  to  receive  the 
monopoly  of  trade  for  forty  years.     It  was  not  long  before  the 
Canadians  themselves  saw  that  the  country  was  not  worth  main- 
taining in  the  face  of  such  a  monopoly  of  its  commerce.     The 
company,  to  quiet  the  discontent,  made  concession  of  the  trade 
of  the  Upper  St.  Lawrence ;  but  retained  that  of  the  lower  parts 
of  the  river. 

To  exercise  the  general  control  over  all  his  American  posses- 
sions, the  king  dispatched  Alexander  de  Prouville,  Marquis 
Marquis  de  Tracy,  to  be  lieutenant-general  over  that  ^^  ^""y" 
part  of  America  possessed  by  France.     For  the  more  immediate 
control  of  New  France  he  created  Daniel  de  Remy, 
Sieur  de  Courcelles,  governor,  and  made  Jean  Baptiste  courceiies 

governor ; 

Talon  intendant.     This  last  office  made  an  associate  Taion 

intendftnt. 

ruler  share  in  some  respects  the  governor's  responsi- 
bility, and  in  others  hold  him  in  check. 

In  the  early  summer  of  1665,  Tracy,  having  made  a  circuit  by 
the  West  Indies,  reached  the  St.  Lawrence,  and  on  June 
30  he  landed  beneath  the  rock  of  Quebec.  He  was  now 
a  man  of  sixty-two.  He  brought  with  him  some  of  the  troops 
which  D'Avaugour  had  pleaded  for,  a  few  companies  of  the 
Carignan-Salieres  regiment,  and  these  were  joined  by  other 
companies  shortly  afterwards.  A  final  quota  came  in  Septem- 
ber in  the  train  of  Courcelles  and  Talon.  Beside  these  veterans 
of  the  Turkish  and  other  wars,  the  ordinary  accessions  to  the 
colony  of  late  had  been  large,  for  at  least  two  thousand  persons 
had  come  over  at  the  royal  charge.  It  seemed  as  if  a  new 
invigoration  was  in  store  for  the  colony.  With  a  force  of  twelve 
hundred  veterans  there  was  a  chance  that  the  frontiers  towards 
the  Iroquois  could  be  defended.  Within  three  weeks,  Tracy 
began  the  erection  of  forts  on  the  Richelieu,  and  later  he  forti- 
fied an  island  in  Lake  Champlain,  where  Fort  St.  Anne  becaras 
the  base  in  time  of  still  other  forward  movements. 

But  New  France  was  to  gain  more  from  the  intendant  Talon, 
who  had  Colbert  for  his  supporter,  and  his  abilities  as  an  ener< 


1GC5. 


:     ;a 


I  I 


1 1, 


J'   il 


Ill 


i-fe 


9 


.!     » 


192 


REORGANIZED   CANADA,  1G63-1672. 


LAKE  ST.  PIERRE  AND  THE  SORKL  RIVER,  ICOG. 
[After  Suite's  Canadiens-Fraiiruis,  vii.] 


' 


WESTERN  DISCOVERl'. 


193 


getic  reformer  soon  showed  that  he  could,  in  some  ways,  overtop 
tlie  vice-regal  power  of  the  governor.  In  gorgeous  courceiies 
state,  Courcelles  was  supreme;  he  outranked  the  in-  '""^''^''•on- 
tendant  as  a  military  leader,  and  was  vested  with  powers  to  treat 
for  foreign  relations ;  but  in  matters  of  police,  justice,  and  finance, 
the  intendant  was  clothed  with  a  power  which  grew  strong 
under  such  vigilance  as  Talon  bestowed.  The  administration  of 
Canada  had  never  before  known  so  alert  an  eye.  Everywhere 
the  people  were  thrilled  by  the  intendant's  enei'gy.  No  one 
had  had,  in  this  wilderness,  such  an  ambition  for  France,  and  , 
the  French  lilies  must  go  wherever  man  could  carry  them. 
Talon  hoped  that  immigration  woidd  follow  the  symbol,  and 
he  strove  to  promote  it.  He  went  in  his  purposes  further  than 
even  Colbert  dared  to  go,  and  the  home  minister  was  forced 
to  intimate  to  his  agent  that  France  could  not  be  drained 
of  its  life-blood  to  furnish  settlers  for  the  St.  Lawrence.  The 
English  had  just  captured  New  Amsterdam,  and  Talon  fancied 
that  French  gold  would  tempt  them  to  sell  it.  There  was  some- 
thing to  the  English  more  alluring  than  French  gold,  and  that 
was  an  alliance  with  the  Iroquois,  and  they  succeeded  easily  to 
this  inheritance  from  the  Dutch. 

The  vantage-ground  which  Nicolet  had  secured  at  the  west 
was  never  fairly  appreciated  till  Talon  became   intendant  of 
Canada.     He  now  entered  upon  the  task  of  proving  that  ex- 
plorer's prevision  to  be  worth  confirming.     The  intend- 
ant showed  that  he  had  a  wonderful  faculty  of  making  western 

discovcrv 

others  work  for  him,  and  support  themselves  while 
doing  it,  and  he  manifested  this  in  nothing  more  than  in  his 
prosecution  of  western  discovery.  Margry  prints  various  extracts 
from  Talon's  letters,  showing  his  determination  to  make  French 
rule  pervade  the  great  interior  of  the  continent,  and  we  know 
that  the  Spaniards  manifested  not  a  little  jealousy  at  Talon's 
]  'ojects.  They  knew  that  he  intended  to  awe  them  at  the 
^  nth,  if  only  he  could  find  a  continental  stream  flowing  to  the 
(nilf  of  Mexico,  with  a  convenient  strategical  point  near  its 
debouchemeut  where  he  could  build  a  fort. 

Talon  in  due  time  impressed  upon  the  king  the  necessity  of 
establishing  posts  towards  the  south  by  which  the  livals  of 


.        ..      I     ?i 


■i' 

.1 

:iJ 
% 

i  1 1 

!  ii 

!  i<V- 

■  ^1 


m^i 


'•I: 


'-■  3t.  '  y 


■■  ir 
/| 

:  I 
,  ■■) 

if 


194 


REORGANIZED   CANADA,  1663-1672. 


w 


h    4 


ii 


France  could  be  kept  from  working  westward.  A  renegade 
Frenchnaan,  one  Louis  de  Page,  was  at  the  same  time  striving 
to  make  the  English  king  occupy  in  force  the  Isle  a  Coudres, 
just  below  Quebec,  so  as  to  prevent  succor  of  the  upper  country 
by  a  French  armament,  while  an  English  force  raided  the  lakes 
and  secured  the  country  lying  towards  the  Mississippi.  Talon 
held  that  somewhere  in  Ontario  a  fortified  station  was  necessary 
as  the  base  of  an  advance  towards  Florida.  The  governor 
entered  into  the  spirit  of  Talon's  purpose,  and  undertook  in 
1666  Jan.  January,  1666,  an  armed  reconnoissance  of  the  Mo- 
vXs thlMS^  hawk  country,  for  this  tribe  seemed  little  disposed  to 
hawk  country,  yegpect  the  pcace  which  the  other  confederated  tribes 
had  made  with  the  French.  Coureelles's  force  increased  as  he 
passed  Three  Rivers,  and  he  commanded  not  far  from  five  hun- 
dred men  when  he  reached  Fort  Therese,  well  up  the  Richelieu. 
He  lacked  efficient  guides,  however,  and  led  his  force  too  far  to 
the  east,  so  that  on  February  20  he  found  himself  at  Schenec- 
tady. Here  he  learned  that  the  Dutch  rule  on  the  Hudson  had 
given  place  to  the  English.  This,  and  the  time  which  his  mis- 
take had  given  to  the  Mohawks  for  preparation  to  receive  him, 
as  well  as  the  inclemency  of  the  weather,  rendered  it  prudent  for 
him  to  retrace  his  steps,  ar  i  his  baffled  force  turned  to  the  north. 
The  Mohawks'  escape  from  what  might  have  been  a  heavy 
chastisement  hardly  conduced  to  incline  them  to  peace,  while 
the  increased  power  which  the  French  had  shown  convinced 
them  that  it  was  not  to  be  so  easy  in  the  future  as  in  the  past 
to  deliver  a  rapid  blow  on  the  St.  Lawrence  and  then  retreat. 
So  not  one  of  the  uncertain  offers  of  peace  which  the  Mo- 
hawks made  were  as  assuring  as  was  expected,  and  Tracy 
resolved  to  deal  a  blow  himself,  before  the  season  was  over. 
October.  ^^  Octobcr  lie  was  on  his  way  up  Lake  George,  with 
Bion  under  ^^^  huudrcd  troops,  as  many  Canadians,  and  a  hundred 
Tracy.  Indians.     No  such  force  had  been  seen  in  Canada 

before.  He  fell  upon  the  Mohawk  villages  one  after  another, 
only  to  find  them  deserted.  He  consequently  encountered  not 
the  least  resistance  in  his  devastating  march.  The  dispersion 
16C7.  The  of  the  Hurons  was  avenged.  In  the  spring  of  1667,  a 
Mohwks  Mohawk  embassy  came  to  Quebec  suing  for  peace,  and 
peace.  there  was  a  respite  from  danger  for  twenty  years  all 

along  the  St.   Lawrence  valley.      When   Tracy  returned  to 


m ' ' 


i 


GROSSEILLIERS. 


195 


ade 
ing 
res. 


France,  —  as  he  did  shortly  afterwards,  —  he  could  carry  the 
comforting  assurance  that  he  had  conquered  a  peace.  It  had 
long  been  a  complaint  of  Colbert  that  the  horrors  of  an  Iroquois 
war  sprang  largely  from  the  habit  of  the  settlers  in  pushing 
their  cabins  too  far  from  support,  in  order  to  meet  the  fur 
trader  nearer  his  supply.  With  a  peace  assured,  the  remon- 
strance lobt  its  force,  and.  the  increase  of  the  colony  for  the 
next  two  years  shows  how  the  field  of  habitation  was  growing 
corfstantly  wider.  The  census  which  marked  3,418  icco.  cen- 
souls  at  the  end  of  the  Iroquois  war  (1666)  two  years  *""• 
later  had  run  up  to  5,870. 

The  peace  opened  new  prospects,  and  there  were  chances 
now  to  solve  the  geographical  doubts  in  every  direction. 

We  will  look  first  at  the  one  respecting  the  north.  Twenty 
years  before  this,  Kagueneau  had  been  questioning  the  Explorations 
northern  Indians  hanging  about  the  Huron  missions,  °"^^ 
and  had  learned  that  their  hunters  had  reached  the  North  Sea 
in  their  quest  for  furs,  and  that  it  lay  in  a  straight  line  towards 
the  pole  more  than  three  hundred  leagues  away.  In  October, 
1660,  when  Grosseilliers  and  Radisson  had  followed 
up  a  northern  tributary  of  Lake  Superior  to  Lake  orosseii- 

lleis  etc. 

Nepigon,  one  of  their  party,  named  Pere,  had  dis- 
covered beyond  the  divide  a  stream,  by  which  it  was  supposed 
they  could  descend  to  Hudson's  Bay. 

At  a  later  day,  Grosseilliers  had  sought  to  test  all  these  conjec- 
tures, and  during  his  wanderings  it  has  been  asserted,  but  with 
no  definite  proof,  that  he  had  actually  reached  James's  Bay,  the 
southern  bend  of  Hudson's  Bay,  and  found  that  the  English, 
seeking  a  passage  westward  farther  north,  had  not  yet  been  there. 
Returning  to  Quebec  with  Radisson,  full  of  enthusiasm  for  the 
opening  of  a  new  trade,  if  he  had  not  discovered  its  exact  chan- 
nel, Grosseilliers  had  proposed  an  expedition,  by  water,  descend- 
ing the  St.  Lawrence  and  rounding  the  Labrador  coast.  There 
was  not  only  no  response  to  his  enthusiasm  by  the  managers  of 
the  company,  but  he  was  even  fined  for  trading  in  the  north 
without  a  license.  The  rebuff  was  enough  to  make  him  eager  to 
seek  other  masters,  and  he  went  to  Boston  to  find  orossemiera 
them.  Here  he  fell  in  with  a  Captain  Zachary  Gillam,  "'  ^'"'*°°- 
who  was  quite  ready  to  make  a  hasty  run  in  his  ketch  to  James's 


!  > 


t     1 


i'l: 


•m" 


i    ; 


III 


if 


mit 


196 


REORGANIZED   CANADA,   1663-1672. 


Bay,  and  Grosseilliers  went  (1664-65)  with  him.     They  ac- 
complished little  more  than  to  find  the  way  and  re-  ig&j-c5. 
turn  to  Boston.     Here  they  met  Colonel  Carr,  one  wa'aBayl"*" 


HUDSON'S   BAY. 


of  the   royal   commissioners  to   receive   Manhattan   from   the 
Dutch,  and  so  impressed  him  with  the  chance  of  a  new  access 


HUDSON  BAY  COMPANY. 


197 


to  the  trade   for  peltries  that  Carr  wrote  about  it  to  Lord 
Arlington.   Carr  undertook  to  secure  for  the  two  Frenchmen  — 
for  Radisson  was  with  Grosseilliers  —  a  passage  to  England, 
and  in  August,  1665,  they  sailed  from  Boston.    While  ^^  ^^ 
in  London,  they  had  the  favor  of  an  interview  with  jees,  from 

"'  ,  ,       Boston  to 

Prince  Rupert,  and  this  conspicuous  personage  and  his  England, 
friends  combined  to  give  the  adventurers  an  outfit  in  ^dson's 
two  ships,  one  of  which  was  the  "  Nonsuch,"  Captain 
Gillam,  with  whom  they  had  sailed  to  the  north  from  Boston 
two  years  before.     It  wa^^  \o  the  New  England  capital  that 
the  expedition,  after  a  successful  venture  at  the  north,   re- 
turned, and  we  find  Wait  Winthrop,  in   December 
(1671),  writing  from  Boston  that  Zachary  Gillam 
had  come  back  "  from  the  northwest  passage  with  abundance 
of  beaver."     Thence  the  ships  sailed  for  England,  where  it  be- 
came known  that  the  explorers  had  built  and  equipped  a  fort 
on  what  they  called  Rupert's  River,  thus  making  a  lodgment  in 
the  country. 

This  was  success  enough  to  give  form  to  that  great  commer- 
cial enterprise  which  had  a  long  history  as  the  Hud-  Hudson  Bay 
son  Bay  Company.      It  was  soon  chartered  by  the  ^°™P*"y- 
king,  and  we  find  the  aristocratic  names  of  Prince  Rupert  and 
others  among  its  corporators. 

The  future  of  this  monopoly  was  hardly  then  divined.  The 
secretary  of  the  Royal  Society,  when  he  heard  of  a  grant  of 
vessels  to  Grosseilliers,  wrote  to  Boyle  just  as  if  a  northwest 
passage  had  already  been  discovered.  There  seems  to  have 
been  no  serious  purpose  in  the  conduct  of  the  affairs  of  the 
company  beyond  the  fur  trade  and  its  profits,  and  neither  dis- 
covery nor  the  conversion  of  the  Indians  proved  to  have  that 
share  in  its  interests  which  was  the  pretense  of  its  charter. 

In  November,  1670,  word  had  somehow  come  to  Talon  in 
Quebec  that  two  English  vessels  were  in   Hudson's  Nov.,  i67o. 
Bay.     The  Montagnais  at  this  time  had  been  pressed  ofth"  E^ngf 
so  hard  by  the  Iroquois  that  they  had  abandoned  the  "***  ^""'p^" 
lower  Saguenay.     So  it  happened  that  hunters  of  the  Mon- 
tagnais had  probably  sought  security  in  the  direction  of  the 
northern  waters.     From  them,  through  the  missionaries,  it  is 
probable  that  the  news  had  reached  Talon.     The  natives  of  this 
bay  region  had  heretofore  traded  with  the  French  through  the 


-i     j 


m 


.!  1 
) 


11 

1    !' 


11 


ii 

(  s 


Vi 


! 


^mi 


m 


.f. ' ' 


198 


REORGANIZED   CANADA,  1663-1672. 


1072,  June 
28.   At  Hud 
sou's  Bay, 


intermediate  Ottawas,  and  Talon  was  anxious  to  dispense  with 
such  middlemen.  He  was  quite  sure,  moreover,  that  the  present 
movement  of  the  English  to  divert  that  trade  was  under  the 
instigation  of  Grosseilliers.  The  next  year  (1671),  the  inteud- 
1671.  Sends  ^^^  s^"*  Father  Albanel  up  the  Saguenay  to  open  the 
tiJeSagu^  way  for  a  French  occupation  by  founding  a  mission 
"»y-  near  the  bay.     In  the  following  June  (1672),  that 

priest  pushed  on  from  the  upper  waters  of  that  river,  and  by 
the  28th  he  was  on  the  shores  of  the  bay.  The  coun- 
try was  now  taken  possession  of  for  the  French  king, 
perhaps  within  sight  of  vessels  flying  the  English  col- 
ors, for  the  Jesuit  reported  seeing  them.  We  get  some  account 
of  this  undertaking  in  Father  Dablon's  lielation  of  1671-72. 
Talon  at  the  same  time  informed  the  king  that  he  was  considei*- 
ing  a  proposition  to  send  a  small  bark  to  the  bay  by  water ;  but 
he  seems  to  have  been  no  better  prepared  for  the  task  then  than 
when  Grosseilliers  had  proposed  it.  It  was  not  long  before  the 
factors  of  the  Hudson  Bay  Company  heard  of  Albanel's  doings, 
and  the  officers  of  the  company  in  England  were  memorializing 
the  government  in  the  matter  of  encroachments,  and  still  later 
La  Barre  took  his  turn  in  complaining  to  the  ministry  in  Paris 
of  English  encroachments. 

Let  us  turn  now  to  the  explorations  towards  the  west.     The 
summer  of  1665  had  brought  down  to  the  settlements 
pioratious      a  flotiUa  of  canoes  from  Lake  Superior  for  the  annual 
trade.   In  August,  they  were  to  go  back,  and  under  an 
escort  of  about  four  hundred  of  these  savages,  a  few  Frenchmen, 
including  Father  Allouez,  who  was  sent  to  take  the  place  of  the 
luckless  Menard,  started  on  the  long  return  journey.     On  Sep- 
tember 2,  he  was  at  the  Sault  Ste.  Marie,  and,  passing  into  the 
great  lake  beyond,  he  bestowed  upon  it  the  name  of  Tracy,  "  in 
acknowledgment  of  the  obligations  we  are  under  to 

Allouez  on  ,,       t  •        i  i        a  h 

Lake  Supe-  that  man.  Later  m  the  same  month,  Allouez  was  at 
the  bay  where  the  modern  town  of  Ashland  stands, 
and  on  the  principal  island  near  the  inlet,  which  the  French 
called  La  Pointe,  he  founded  the  mission  of  the  Holy  Spirit, 
with  a  village  of  the  Chippewas  near  by,  and  built  a  bark 
chapel  for  his  altar. 

There  were  about  eight  hundred  warriors  in  the  neighbor- 


MARQUE  I  IE  AND  DABLON. 


199 


hood,  made  up  of  wandering  bands  of  the  Algonquin  stock, 
and  the  father  lost  no  time  in  making  the  savages  feel  that 
the  new  representative  of  his  royal  master  was  determined  to 
pursue  their  old  enemy,  the  Iroquois,  until  that  hated  foe  was 
either  exterminated  or  should  succumb.  It  was  in  his  inter- 
course with  these  various  tribes  that  the  name  of  the  "  great 
T»ater,"  of  which  the  savages  had  so  often  spoken,  took  form 
in  the  phonetic  rendering  of  Allouez  as  "  Missipi,"  in  Hears  of  the 
his  enumeration  of  the  tribes  which  were  said  to  "MUsipi" 
live  along  its  banks.  The  priest  was  inclined  from  what  he 
heard  of  that  stream  to  suppose  that  it  entered  the  Sea  of  Vir- 
ginia, as  the  Chesapeake  and  its  neighboring  oceanic  waters 
were  sometimes  called. 

It  was  during  some  of  his  excursions  hereabouts,  in  which  he 
sought  to  find  the  great  mass  of  native  copper,  often  de-  siouxcoun- 
scribed,  that  Allouez  fell  in  with  parties  of  the  Sioux  *'y* 
(Nadouesiouek).  They  represented  their  country  as  lying  to 
the  west  of  Lake  Superior,  forty  or  fifty  leagues  towards  the 
"  Missipi,"  and  as  being  a  prairie  region.  The  savages  seemed 
to  speak  of  their  home  as  the  extremity  of  the  earth,  but  yet 
represented  another  people  to  be  still  farther  west,  while  beyond 
the  latter  lay  the  great  fetid  ocean.  To  the  north  of  them  were 
other  tribes,  with  some  that  eat  meat  raw  beyond ;  and  still 
farther  was  the  North  Sea,  bordering  a  country  which  confined 
the  water-shed  of  Hudson's  Bay. 

These  descriptions  were  in  due  time  to  find  their  way  to  the 
public  in  the  Jesuit  Relations^  and  the  geographers  recognized 
in  them  a  decided  progress  in  the  development  of  this  great 
AVestern  Mystery. 

In  1668,  Marquette  had  founded  a  mission  on  the  southern 
side  of  the  Sault  Ste.  Marie,  the  earliest  in  what  is  ,^^^  ^ 
now  the  State  of  Michigan.     Here  he  was  soon  jomed  ^*'"]J'«"« 
by  Dablon,  and  in  September,  1669,  Marquette  was 
sent  to  La  Pointe  to  take  the  place  of  Allouez,  who  had  other 
work  to  do. 

There  had  been  for  some  time  among  the  tribes  on  the  Fox 
River,  near  the  head  of  Green  Bay,  a  few  young  Frenchmen 
seeking  trade,  and  yielding  to  their  unbridled  passions.  They 
were  of  a  class  now  beginning  to  be  felt,  which  has  coureursde 
passed  into  history  as  the  Coureurs  de  bois,  —  a  law-  *"*'*• 


i:! 


It' 


t 


200 


REORGANIZED   CANADA,  1663-167S. 


tM 


^*    If 
I  'M.'-3i..! 


»(     ! 


liwn 


less  gang,  half  trader,  half  explorer,  wholly  bent  on  divertise- 
ment,  and  not  discouraged  by  misery  or  peril.  They  lived  in  a 
certain  fashion,  to  which  the  missionaries  themselves  were  not 
averse,  as  Lemercier  shows  when  he  commends  the  priests  of 
his  order  as  being  savages  among  savages.  Charlevoix  tells  us 
that  while  the  Indian  did  not  become  French,  the  Frenchman 
became  a  savage.  Talon  speaks  of  these  vagabonds  as  living  as 
banditti,  gathering  furs  as  they  could,  and  bringing  them  to 
Albany  or  Montreal  to  sell,  just  as  it  proved  the  easiest.  If  the 
intendant  could  have  controlled  them,  he  would  have  made  them 
marry,  give  up  trade  and  the  wilderness,  and  settle  down  to 
work.  It  was  his  attempts  to  do  this  that  drove  them  into  the 
woods  and  threw  them  into  the  English  trade.  Their  alienation 
helped  the  English  and  embarrassed  the  French.  It  was  left 
for  Frontenac  later  to  regulate  what  could  not  be  suppressed. 

Father  Allouez  tells  us  how  he  was  urged  by  the  savages 
themselves  to  go  among  the  tribes  at  Green  Bay  and  influence 
to  soberer  practices  a  group  of  these  men  who  congregated  there. 
It  was  on  this  mission  that  he  left  La  Pointe,  with  the  further 
hope  of  making  some  converts  among  the  neighboring  Indians. 
He  returned^  first  to  the  Sault,  and  left  there  for  his  new  post  on 
November  3.  Here  he  spent  the  winter,  and  founded 
the  mission  of  St.  Francis  Xavier  among  the  Potta- 
wattamies.  In  April  (1670),  he  ascended  the  Fox,  and 
found  Indians  on  Lake  Winnebago  mourning  the  losses  they 
had  experienced  in  a  recent  attack  by  the  Senecas.  On  the  Wolf 
River,  an  affluent  of  the  Fox,  he  founded  another  mission,  that 
of  St.  Mark,  and  for  a  while  administered  at  both  missions. 
In  some  of  his  further  explorations  he  reached  the  head  of  the 
Wisconsin,  and  records  that  it  led  to  the  great  river  "  Messi- 
sipi,"  six  days  off.  The  Relation  of  1669-70  repeats  this 
new  story  of  the  great  river  in  speaking  of  it  as  more  than  a 
league  wide,  and  flowing  from  the  north  to  the  south.  It  adds 
that  the  savages  had  never  reached  its  mouth,  and  it  was  not 
certain  whether  it  flowed  into  the  Gulf  of  Florida  or  into  that 
of  California. 


1669-70. 
Allouez  at 
Green  Bay. 


Marquette,  whom  Allouez  had  left  at  La  Pointe,  was  living 
Marquette  at  ^  disappointed  life.  He  had  the  remnants  of  the  Hu- 
La  Pointe.     ^^^^  ^^^  Ottawas  about  him,  who  had  settled  here  to 


RUMORS  OF  THE  GREAT  RIVER. 


201 


be,  as  they  hoped,  beyond  the  reach  of  the  Iroquois.  Wander- 
ing bands  of  a  multitude  of  tribes  came  to  the  post  to  trade 
with  the  French,  and  among  them  were  parties  of  the  Illinois, 
living  at  this  time  apparently  to  the  west  of  the  Mississippi. 
Bands  of  the  Sioux,  who  came  too,  said  to  Marquette,  as  they 
had  to  his  predecessor,  that  they  lived  on  the  banks  of  this 
same  broad  river.  While  the  poor  priest  was  pondering  how 
he  could  make  his  way  to  this  great  water,  and  was  picturing 
more  fruitful  fields  for  his  labors,  a  feud  was  gathering  between 
the  Hurons  and  the  ferocious  Sioux,  these  Iroquois  of  the  west, 
as  Marquette  called  them. 

This  warfare  for  a  time  interfered  with  a  cherished  scheme 
which  Marquette  had  formed  of  going  south  to  the  Illinois,  and 
establishing  a  mission  among  that  people.  He  had  already 
undertaken  to  acquire  their  tongue  from  some  wanderers  of  the 
tribe,  and  from  these  Indians  he  had  learned  that  in  coming  to 
La  Pointe  they  had  passed  a  great  river,  which  flowed  towards 
the  south,  but  none  of  their  tribe  had  ever  reached  its  mouth. 
According  to  the  stories  which  Marquette  heard  from  them, 
there  was  to  the  south  of  the  Illinois  a  people  who  gathered 
corn  twice  a  year.  The  Shawnees  had  told  them,  they  said, 
that  this  distant  people  wore  glass  beads,  and  Marquette  con- 
jectured that  this  fact  indicated  contact  with  Europeans.  It  took 
thirty  days  to  reach  this  other  people,  going  south  from  the 
Illinois  country.  There  were  other  stories  which  came  to  his 
ears,  as  of  a  river  at  the  west  flowing  to  a  sea  where  large  canoes 
under  sail  had  been  seen,  and  where  the  tide  came  and  went. 

Marquette,  in  reasoning  upon  such  statements,  reached  a  dif- 
ferent conclusion  from  Allouez,  in  supposing  that  the  Believes  the 
mouth  of  this  river  must  be,  not  on  the  Atlantic  side,  §J,wgto7h8 
but  on  the  Pacific,  at  the  Gulf  of  California.  "If  I  get  ^'^'"•'• 
the  canoe,"  he  adds,  "  which  the  Indians  have  promised  to  make 
me,  I  intend  with  another  Frenchman,  who  can  speak  with 
these  lower  people  in  their  own  tongues,  to  navigate  this  stream 
and  come  in  contact  with  these  lower  tribes,  and  so  decide  the 
question  of  the  ultimate  direction  of  this  great  river's  flow." 

The  reports  which  at  this  time  were  coming  in  to  the  Jesuit 
councils  at  Quebec,  and  which  were  embodied  in  their  Relation 
of  1670-71,  speak  of  the  Mississippi,  as  they  had  now  learned 
to  call  the  great  water,  as  flowing  south  either  into  the  Vermilion 


^ 

1 

•    i 

■i     il 

1 

- 

•1 

!■  i. 


i;  1, 


,  » 


i'.ll 


ii 


l>.:l 


1       I 


m\ 


n 


202 


REORGANIZED   CANADA,   1(1(13-1079. 


'■    ] 


>; 


Sea  (California),  or  into  that  of  Florida,  "  Hinco  what  is  known 
of  great  rivers  in  that  direction  is  that  they  flow  into  one  or  the 
other  of  these  seas."  "  The  Indians  say,"  the  report  goes  on, 
**  that  for  more  than  three  hundred  leagues  front  its  month  it 
is  wider  than  the  St.  Lawrence  at  Quebec,  and  that  it  fluws 
through  a  treeless  prairie  land,  where  the  only  fuel  is  turf  or 
dried  excrements.  As  it  nears  the  sea,  the  woods  again  grow, 
and  in  this  region  the  inhabitants  seem  like  the  French,  have 
houses  in  the  water,  and  cut  trees  with  large  knives."  This  is 
interprete«l  by  the  writer  in  the  lielat'ion.  to  mean  that  the  peo- 
ple have  ships  and  hew  out  planks.  "  All  along  the  river  from 
the  Nadouesse  [Sioux]  to  the  south  there  are  many  tribes  of 
different  customs  and  tongues,  and  they  make  war  on  each 
other." 

The  feud  with  the  Sioux  had  so  extended  that  the  Huron  and 
Marquette  Ottawa  fugitives,  unused  to  victory,  moved  away  from 
HMrora,"'"  La  Pointe  to  avoid  a  conflict,  and  Marquette  followed 
ic7()-7i:  them.  We  shall  see  that  Dollier  found  him  at  the 
Sault  Ste.  Marie,  in  1G70.  The  next  year  (1671),  we  find  him 
among  the  Hurons  on  the  north  shore  of  the  Straits  of  Macki- 
naw, where  they  had  stopped  in  their  flight,  and  here  Marquette 
founded  the  mission  of  St.  Ignace.  At  the  same  time  another 
priest,  Louis  Andre,  who  had  first  joined  Marquette 
at  La  Pointe,  settled  with  the  Ottawas  in  their  re- 
treat at  the  Great  Manitoulin  Island.  The  chastisement  which 
had  been  given  by  Tracy  to  their  inveterate  enemies,  and  of 
which  they  had  heard,  seemed  now  to  embolden  the  Ottawas  to 
move  toward  their  old  country,  west  of  Lake  Huron. 


Andrt>  with 
the  ottawas 


But  before  this  there  had  been  an  imposing  ceremonial  at 
Nicolas  Per-  ^^  Sault  Stc.  Marie.  Among  the  better  class  of  the 
rot,  1670.  ^jij  wanderers  of  the  woods  was  one  Nicolas  Perrot, 
who  had  been  long  enough  among  the  Indians  to  acquire  some 
ascendancy  over  them.  His  countrymen  had  confidence  in  him, 
—  another  point  in  his  favor.  He  was  now  in  the  full  prime  of 
physical  vigor ;  young  enough  to  endure  and  show  others  how 
to  endure.  He  was  twenty-six  or  thereabouts.  In  the  summer 
of  1670,  after  he  had  spent  a  winter  among  the  western  tribes, 
a  long  line  of  fur-laden  canoes  trailed  along  the  Ottawa  route 
under  his  guidance. 


i  M 


ENdLlSH    EXPLOHEIiS. 


203 


Perrot  oame  to  Quebec  at  a  time  which  was  opportune  for 
Talou's  projects.  The  intuiKhint  had,  before  thia,  dispatcht'd 
ifoliet  to  the  extreme  west  to  seek  for  the  iniiiOH  of  copper,  said 
to  lie  thereabouts,  but  that  pioueer  had  failed  to  discover  them. 
Talon  was  now  ready  to  send  an  official  expi  dition  of  ];irger 
aims,  with  the  certainty,  as  he  thought,  of  establishing  kucIi 
relations  with  the  tribes  of  that  region  as  would  serve,  in  some 
measure  at  least,  to  balk  the  English  in  their  efforts  to  draw  the 
Indian  trade  to  stations  on  Hudson's  Bay. 

There  might  well  have  been  in  Talon's  mind  other  plans  of 
the  English  which  troubled  him.  The  scheme  of  the  rival 
crown  in  granting  charters  alonj;  the  Atlantic  seaboard  during 
the  preceding  sixty  years  could  hardly  have  been  unknown  to 
the  French  government.  The  charter  of  Virginia  virRini* 
formulated  a  claim  for  extension  "  up  into  the  land  "'""""• 
throughout  from  sea  to  sea  west  and  northwest,"  and  this  de- 
scription stretched  their  claim,  as  later  discoveries  had  shown, 
over  the  very  country  which  for  nearly  forty  years  the  French 
wood-rangers  and  priests  had  been  exploring.  The  opinion 
which  has  been  since  advanced,  that  the  annulling  of  the  Vir- 
ginia charter  in  1624  by  quo  loarranto  was  equivalent  to  an 
abandonment  of  this  right  of  extension  beyond  the  AUeghanies, 
was  hardly  in  mind  then,  and  the  English  Commonwealth,  in 
1G51,  certainly  reaffirmed  this  inordinate  sea-to-sea  pretension. 
The  later  charters  of  Massachusetts  and  Connecticut  recognized 
this  extravagant  right,  though  the  subsequent  grants  to  the 
Duke  of  York  and  Penn  were  in  disregard  of  it.  It  has  been 
asserted  that  the  authorities  in  Virginia  just  at  this  time  were 
giving  practical  expression  to  their  alleged  rights  beyond  the 
mountains  in  sending  out  expeditions  to  find  and  determine 
the  direction  of  the  streams  of  the  great  inland  water-shed. 
We  need  not  regard  stories  trumped  up  at  a  much  later  pe- 
riod to  enforce  the  English  claim  along  the  Ohio,  such  as  that 
which  Thomas  Ilutchins  tells  of  a  Captain  Bolt  reaching  the 
Mississippi  by  this  route  in  1670.  It  is  to  be  feared  that  there 
is  no  weightier  ground  for  believing  that  in  Septem- 
ber, 1671,  just  after  the  French  had  made  the  cere-  legeii  English 

•1  iciirt-nT*  IT  .11      expedition 

monial  at  the  oault  ote.  Mane,  soon  to  be  described,  over  the  Aiie- 

Governor  Berkeley  of  Virginia  sent  Captain  Thomas 

Batts,  with  a  party  of  English  and  Indians,  over  the  mountains 


,    ') 


i: 


r'^f 


Flif 


i:    !  t     r 


204 


REORGANIZED   CANADA,  IGGS-lGTui. 


1C70-71. 
St.  Lus- 
soii's  expe' 
ditioii. 


Perrot'g 
memoirg. 


to  observe  the  course  of  these  western  currents.     We  shall  re« 
vert  to  this  story  in  the  next  chapter. 

Of  the  'Sufficiently  accredited  and  far  more  imposing  effort  at 
continental  occupation,  to  which  in  the  very  same  year  Talon 
was  giving  direction  along  the  Great  Lakes,  Simon  Francois 
Daumont,  Sieur  St.  Lusson,  had  been  selected  the 
leader.  He  had  been  commissioned  the  previous 
year,  September  3,  1670.  In  October,  the  party 
started.  There  was  a  small  retinue,  but  what  was  vastly  more 
important,  the  indispensable  Perrot  was  of  the  number.  When 
the  party  reached  the  Manitoulin  Islands,  St.  Lusson  remained 
there  in  camp  for  the  winter.  Toward  spring,  Perrot,  who  had 
instructions  both  from  Courcelles  and  Talon,  went  on  to  the 
more  distant  regions  to  prepare  the  Indians  for  the  scene  they 
were  to  witness.  We  get  the  story  in  good  part  from 
Perrot's  own  memoirs.  This  narrative  served  Charle- 
voix in  his  account  of  the  events ;  but  it  was  not  given  to  the 
modern  scholar  till  Father  Tailhan  edited  it  from  the  manu- 
script in  Paris  in  1864.  It  had  been  in  good  part  used  by  La 
Potherie,  and  the  English  reader  had  known  something  of  it  be- 
fore in  such  parts  of  it  as  Golden  included  in  his  JFive  Nations. 
This  memoir  makes  reference  to  other  writings  of  Perrot,  in- 
volving his  knowledge  of  savage  life  and  history,  but  no  other 
manuscript  has  come  down  to  us. 

It  was  the  purpose  of  the  authorities  to  have  an  august  cere- 
mony at  the  Sault  Ste.  Marie  in  the  following  summer,  and 
Perrot's  mission  in  going  ahead  was  to  arrange  with  the  tribes 
neighboring  to  Green  Bay  that  they  should  accompany  him 
to  the  Sault  in  the  spring  (1671).  He  seems  to  have  elicited 
a  showy  welcome  among  these  tribes,  where  he  was  regaled  with 
feasts  and  exhilarated  with  mock  fights.  By  May,  a  large 
concourse  of  savages  had  assembled  at  the  appointed  place. 
There  were  not  only  those  who  had  come  with  Perrot  from 
Gi'eeu  Bay,  but  others  had  responded  to  the  call  of  messengers 
sent  west  and  north,  and  even  from  the  east,  they  came,  as  fur 
as  from  Lake  Nipissing,  —  fourteen  tribes  in  all,  as  their  repre* 
sentatives  were  counted.  St.  Lusson  had  come,  as  was  ex- 
pected, and  in  his  train  was  Louis  Joliet,  a  name  already  be- 
come conspicuous  in  this  western  exploration,  as  we  have  seen, 


ST.  LUSSON'S  PAGEANT. 


205 


aU 


re. 


and  he  had  apparently  been  the  earliest  to  visit  Green  Bay 
(1668)  since  the  time  of  Nicolet.  It  was  on  the  14th  of  June 
that  all  was  ready,  and  we  may  follow  the  lielation  of  1671  in 
describing  what  took  place. 

To  the  top  of  a  hill  near  the  Sault,  St.  Lusson  led  the  mot- 
ley throng,  —  soldier,  priest,  and  savage,  all  in  their  1071  ju„g 
holiday  array.  We  have  the  signatures  of  those  who  JereJouy  at 
were  conspicuous  in  the  ceremonials,  attached  to  the  "'*  ^""''" 
instrument,  recording  their  assumption  of  power  for  the  French 
king  over  all  the  territory  from  the  North  to  the  South  Sea, 
and  extending  to  the  ocean  on  the  west.  What  such  a  range 
meant,  not  one  of  them  knew.  Among  these  signatures  we 
read  the  names  of  four  Jesuits,  Claude  Dablon,  Gabriel  Druil- 
lettes,  Claude  AUouez,  and  Louis  Andre.  Druillettes  was  the 
most  interesting  of  this  group,  both  from  the  experience  which 
a  long  life  had  given  him,  and  from  his  knowledge  of  the 
English,  whom  he  had  known  a  score  of  years  before  when 
he  had  been  sent  to  Boston  to  gain  their  alliance  against  the 
Iroquois,  and  whose  rights  they  were  on  the  point  of  contest- 
ing in  a  regal  act  of  possession.  It  devolved  upon  Dablon 
as  the  superior  of  the  lake  missions  to  bless  a  wooden  cross 
which  had  been  prepared.  The  dusky  faces  of  the  encircled 
savages,  with  glimmering  eyes,  wide  with  wonder,  were  turned 
from  all  sides  towards  this  central  group  of  Europeans.  As 
the  huge  cross  was  lifted  from  one  end  and  dropped  into  its 
cavity,  the  uncovered  French  chanted  a  hymn  of  the  seventh 

century,  — 

"  Vexilla  Regis  proderunt 
Fulget  cnicis  niysterium,"  etc. 

This  done,  a  plate  on  which  was  engraved  the  royal  arms  was 
set  on  a  post  close  by  the  cross,  while  the  Ex<tudiat  was  sung 
and  a  i)riest  offered  a  prayer  for  the  king.  St.  Lusson  then, 
lifting  a  sod  and  holding  forth  his  sword,  took  formal  possession 
of  the  soil  in  the  name  of  His  Most  Christian  Majesty.  Vive 
Ic  liol  was  the  shout  of  the  Frenchmen  in  recognition  of  this 
claim  of  sovereignty ;  anil  the  wild  Indians  howled  in  concert. 

Father  Dablon  has  preserved  for  us  the  curious  speech  which 
Allouoz  made  to  the  assembled  savages.  Allouez  was,  on  more 
than  one  such  occasion,  the  preferred  spokesman  of  his  order. 
He  was  not  unused  to  the  Indian  method  of  harangue.    He  told 


.1  ■ 


\  .  i 


4 


4\ 


{ 


206 


REORGANIZED   CANADA,   1663-1672. 


them  that  the  great  monarch  of  France  fought  amid  his  warriors 
until  he  was  gory  with  the  blood  of  those  he  had  slain.  The 
mighty  king  of  the  French  did  not  resort  to  scalping  to  score 
the  number  of  his  victims,  because  the  streams  of  blood  which 
he  caused  to  flow  were  a  much  better  reckoning !  There  was 
much  else  of  like  grimness  in  the  Jesuit's  speech. 


grapiiical 
position  of 
the  Sault. 


There  was  something  fortuitously  grand  in  the  geographical 
The  geo-  conccptiou  of  thesc  Frenchmen  at  the  Sault  Ste.  Marie. 
There  was  hardly  a  spot  on  the  continent  that  opened 
more  striking  vistas  of  domination  along  such  lines  of 
transit  as  nature  had  provided  here.  Marquette  had  divined  it 
in  relation  to  tlie  missionary  service.  "  Mackinac,"  he  says, 
"  is  the  portal  of  the  southern  tribes,  as  the  Sault  Ste.  Marie  is 
of  those  of  the  north  and  west,  and  many  nations  pass  these 
gates  to  reach  the  settlements  of  the  French." 

Talon  could  but  have  an  inadequate  conception  of  what  his 
representative  liad  done.  In  making  a  report  to  the  home  gov- 
ernment of  what  St.  Lusson  had  accomplished,  t^e  intendant 
had  expressed  the  opinion  that  this  officer  had  penetrated  to  a 
point  not  more  than  three  hundred  leagues  from  the  "  extremity 
of  the  land  "  at  the  Vermilion  or  South  Sea,  and  that  thence  one 
would  have  to  sail  fifteen  hundred  leagues  to  reach  China  and 
Japan. 

From  Lake  Superior  as  a  centre,  the  French  had  reached  at 
this  time  some  pretty  definite  conclusions  as  to  a  route  to  Hud- 
son's Bay  ;  but  of  the  great  tracts  of  the  Canadian  northwest 
with  its  icy  sea  towards  the  pole,  and  rocky  barriers  towards  the 
setting  sun,  there  was  yet  nothing,  even  in  the  Indian  rejiorts, 
to  shape  the  ideas  of  its  future.  To  the  south  and  southwest 
the  expectation  was  more  definite,  and  it  was  not  long  before 
the  great  water  of  the  Mississippi  was  to  be  revealed,  if  it  had 
not  already  been  glimpsed. 

The  same  lidation  (1671)  which  had  given  an  account  of 

.    the  ceremonials  under  St.  Lusson  contained  the  ear- 

niap  of  Lake  Ijest   map   of  a  complotcd  Lake  Superior,  which  in 

a  few  details  as  to  missions  was  rectified  in  a  i)art  of 

the  edition  of  the  llelation  for  the  next  year.     Parknian  holds 

that  this  Jesuit  map  has  been  unduly  i)raised  for  accuracy  in 


1      I 


CARTOGRAPHY. 


207 


comparison  with  other  Canadian  maps  of  that  day ;  but  it  is 
doubtful  if  any  better  was  engraved.  It  was  certainly  a  sur- 
prising improvement  upon  what  the  leading  cartographers  of 
Europe  at  this  time  were  letting  pass  for  the  geography  of  this 
region.  The  Dutch  Montanus  a  year  before  (1070)  had  reached 
no  conclusions  from  all  that  had  come  to  his  knowledge,  except 
that  there  was  some  sort  of  a  big  sea  thereabouts.  After  the 
Jesuit  map  was  published,  a  German  editor  of  Montanus,  in 
1673,  reiingraved  the  Dut(.'h  map,  and  let  it  stand  as  before. 
Ogilby,  though  he  based  his  English  work  on  Mon-  Monunus 
tanus  in  its  text,  seems  for  the  whole  western  region  ^«^^^y- 
to  have  advanced  scarcely  beyond  Champlain.  This  English 
geographer  had  not  even  heard  of  the  Ottawa  route  which  de- 
lation after  Ilelation  had  emphasized,  and  neither  Michigan 
nor  Superior,  in  even  a  rudimentary  shape,  appear  in  his  map, 
showing  how  little  recourse  was  had  by  the  northern  geograpliers 
of  Europe  to  the  records  of  the  French  missionaries.  This 
neglect  of  opportunities  is  nowhere  more  apparent  than  in  the 
map  of  his  province  of  Maryland,  which  was  made  for  Lord 
Baltimore  in  the  very  year  of  8t.  Lusson's  pageant.  This  was 
a  survey  by  Augustine  Herman,  a  Bohemian  engineer,  who  paid 
for  a  tract  of  land  assigned  to  hinx  by  tlie  lord  proprietor,  by 
this  cartograi)hical  service.  The  map  was  published  in  London, 
in  1670,  and  in  a  legend  upon  it  we  read  :  '*  These  mighty  high 
and  great  mountains  [meaning  the  Appalachians]  are  supposed 
to  be  the  very  middle  ridge  of  Northern  America.  And,  as 
Indians  report,  from  the  other  side,  westward  do  the  rivers  take 
their  original  issixing  out  into  the  west  sea."' 

Ogilby  had  made  of  Lake  Erie  a  uumv  river,  —  but  we  need 
now  to  show  how  quite  other  notions  had  prevailed  for 

.,.,  e      ^        r\  ti  i         Lalte  Erie. 

a  vear  or  two,  ot  this  last  oi  the  lireat  Lakes  to  be 
leveloped. 

When  Talon  wrote  to  Colbert,  in  1070,  that  ho  had  sent  reso- 
hite  people  to  go  farther  west  than  any  one  had  gone  before,  it 
is  supposed  —  and  indeed  it  may  bo  hold  to  be  certain  —  that 
he  meant  to  refer  to  St.  Lusson,  as  he  added  that  one  such  had 
jgone  to  the  west  and  nortliwest.  lie  })robably  also  had  La  Salle 
|in  mind  when  he  said  that  another  Imd  gone  south  and  south- 
west. We  get  iipon  debatable  ground  at  this  time  in  trying  to 
find  out  precisely  what  this  new  actor  on  the  scene  did  in  these 


iil^i 


;  m 


It? 


;■'( 


'*•'      \ 


!!'    ii 


I    I 


I  i    i 


208 


REORGANIZED   CANADA,   1663-1672. 


LAKE  SUPEKU. 


LAKE  SUPERIOR. 


209 


(j't/u  dtit  ijirtxj 


^irut  C:*-  CZrrcf 


■'4 


^&4 


i-iiii 


!■! 


( 'i ' 


^ijuila  de^o\uuuu 


[From  the  Jesuit  Rvlaliou,  ICT'.'.] 


;  I 


u^ 


210 


REORGANIZED   CANADA,   1663-1672. 


years  before  Marquette  and  Joliet   made   their  unquestioned 
visit  to  the  Mississippi  in  1673. 


OGILBY,  1G70. 


Rene  Robert  Cavelier,  of  an  old  and  rich  burgher  family  at 
Rouen,  is  known  in  American  history  as  the  Sieur  de  la  Salle, 


It*''  i  -■    ■ 


LA   SALLE. 


211 


ta)ifcct 
TXmutt 


'^ 


from  an  estate  of  his  family  near  that  Norman  town.    Early  in 
life  he  was  a  Jesuit  novice,  or  at  least  the  evidence 

,  .  .  I.  I'll  1    •       ^  Salle. 

IS  suggestive,  if  not  conclusive,  that  he  was  ;  and  it 
is  usually  said  that  he  left  the  order  because  of  his  unwilling- 
ness to  curb  his  independent  spirit.     A  defection  of  this  sort  — 
grant  it  true  —  would  naturally  deprive  him  of  the  sympathies 
of  that  order,  and  that  it  did  has  been  sometimes  in- 
ferred from  the  studious  absence  of  all  reference  to  with  the 
him  and  his  doings  in  the  published  Relations  of  the 
Canadian  Jesuits.     The  only  direct  statement  that  he  had  been 
connected  with  the  Jesuits  comes  from  Hennepin,  —  a  dubious 
authority,  —  and  some  writers  on  Canadian  history,  like  Kings- 
ford,  have  failed  to  find  any  corroborative  evidence.     His  own 
nature  hardly  fitted  him  for  the  servility  of  the  Jesuits,  for  he 
had  an  ardent  temperament  difficult  to  restrain,  and  His  cimr- 
an  ambition  suited  better  to  independency  than  to  a  '"''®'^- 
religious  subjection.     His  enthusiasm  made  friends  for  him  ; 
but  his  headlong  conduct  sometimes  lost  them. 

Having  a  brother  in  Canada  of  the  Sulpitian  fraternity,  he 
was  led  to  join  him.  He  was  about  twenty-three  when  we  first 
find  him  at  Montreal.  It  will  be  remembered  that  this  town 
had  been  founded  by  priests  of  the  Sulpitian  order,  not  far  from 
the  time  when  La  Salle  was  born,  and  that  order's  incorporated 
seminary  was  now  the  feudal  lord  of  a  large  landed  property 
thereabouts.  The  Iroquois  wars  had  operated  to  hinder  settle- 
ment of  their  outlying  lands,  but  now  that  peace  had  come  there 
were  eager  bidders  for  grants  of  lands,  and  among  them  was  the 
young  La  Salle.  From  this  source  he  received  a  tract  At  Montreal, 
of  territory  just  at  the  head  of  the  rapids  above  Mon-  ^^^• 
treal,  admirably  fitted  as  a  station  for  the  fur  trade,  as  Cham- 
plain  had  pointed  out  over  thirty  years  before.  The  spot  was 
several  miles  from  the  thinly  peopled  squares  of  the  town,  sur- 
rounded by  forests,  and  fit  to  be  converted  into  an  outpost  of 
the  settlement,  and  such  the  Sulpitian  fathers  expected  La  Salle 
to  make  it. 

It  was  apparently  near  the  close  of  1667  that  he  secured  his 
land,  and  during  the  winter  he  began  to  clear  it.  By  the  end  of 
1668,  he  had  ten  or  twelve  acres  under  cultivation,  and  ,„„„ 

loCo. 

had  begun  a  palisaded  village.     He  granted  land  both 

within  and  without  these  defenses  to  such  as  could  be  induced 


il. 


m 


n 


-III 


.'.',,  ill 


I  .. 


r„  i 


i  i 


\,ihi 


i! 


Im 


■  *  -ff- 


212 


REORGANIZED   CANADA,  1663-1672. 


to  become  his  tenants,  and  a  large  common  was  set  aside  for  tlic 
public  use.  He  began  buildings  for  his  own  occupancy,  evidently 
with  the  intention  of  leading  the  life  of  a  resident  seigneur,  and 
he  protected  himself  from  over-neighborly  intrusion  by  leaving 
broad  unoccupied  acres  —  more  than  four  hundred,  it  is  said  — 
about  his  homestead,  wherever  this  was,  for  there  is  some  contro- 


LA  SALLE. 
[From  a  copy  of  an  old  Engraving  given  by  Oravier.] 

versy  as  to  its  exact  position  in  his  grant.  Here  he  lived  for  a 
while,  by  no  means  inactively.  He  went  on  excursions  towards 
the  north,  and  we  are  told  that  he  became  satisfied  there  was  no 
practicable  communication  to  be  had  that  way  with  any  western 
sea.  He  conned  the  Indian  tongues,  and  gained  some  proficiency 
in  such  studies. 

La  Salle,  however,  was  too  much  fascinated  with  the  visions 


LA   SALLE. 


213 


of  an  explorer  to  make  a  good  settler,  and  when  some  Senecas, 
in  the  winter  of  1608-69,   visited  his  post,   he  was 
freshly  aroused  by  the  way  in  which  they  depicted  to  ess  at  \m 
liiin  the  course  of  a  great  river,  rising  in  their  country  teii  of  a 
and  making  its  way  to  the  southward  for  such  a  dis-  way  to  the 

.  ,,,  .1.  •  ii>  southward. 

tance  that  it  would  take  eight  or  nine  months  for  a 
canoe  to  follow  it  to  the  sea.  The  story  is  comprehensible  to- 
day by  combining  in  one  the  courses  of  the  Alleghany,  the 
Ohio,  and  the  Mississippi,  but  to  La  Salle's  imagination  it 
was  a  vision  of  the  great  waterway  which  had  been  looked  for 
from  the  time  of  Cartier.  In  the  turn  which  geographical  con- 
ceptions respecting  the  interior  of  North  America  had  been 
for  some  years  taking,  it  seemed  probable  then  that  this  outlet 
of  the  long  river  must  be  in  the  Gulf  of  California.  It  was  a 
grateful  thought  that  this  would  make  it  a  ready  channel  to 
the  South  Sea,  and  give  the  French  access  to  a  route  to  China, 
quite  as  convenient  as  that  of  the  Spaniards  from  Acapulco. 

To  embark  on  such  an  enterprise  as  to  search  for  this  river 
accorded  quite  with  La  oalle's  temper ;  but  as  he  had 
invested  all  he  had  in  his  seigneury,  he  was  without  the  plans  an 
necessary  funds  for  an  equipment.  With  the  hope 
that  he  could  secure  countenance,  and  perhaps  more  active  aid, 
from  the  authorities  at  Quebec,  he  went  thither.  Courcelles 
gave  him  letters  patent,  authorizing  him  to  make  discoveries, 
and  commended  him  to  the  kind  notice  of  the  rulers  in  Virginia 
and  Florida,  if  he  should  chance  to  come  within  their  jurisdic- 
tions. With  these  credentials  La  Salle  returned  to  Montreal, 
and  began  a  treaty  for  the  sale  of  his  estate ;  but  before  it  was 
concluded,  he  entered  into  certain  contracts  with  those  who  were 
to  accompany  him,  including  the  Sieur  de  la'  Roussiliere,  who 
was  to  be  the  surgeon  of  the  expedition.  These  contracts  indi- 
cate that  he  was  not  at  all  sure  what  direction  he  should  ulti- 
mately take,  whether  to  the  north  or  the  south,  and  he  evidently 
meant  to  leave  himself  free  to  profit  by  circumstances  as  they 
might  arise,  for  his  men  bound  themselves  to  follow  him  in 
either  direction. 

Meanwhile,  there  were  other  considerations  to  enter  into  his 
l>lan.  Dollier  de  Casson,  a  Sulpitian  priest,  had  passed  Douier  ue 
a  winter  in  the  Nipissing  country.     He  had  a  daring  ^^^^°"- 
habit,  which  had  been  nurtured  in  early  life  as  a  trooper  of 


j:.v| 


1:1 

1 

i        ; 

i  ;  1 

1 

'■  i  k 

J 

HI 

i :  i. 

i  :   i 

■     !  .f 

y 

1!  ■    ■ 

1 

\'!' 


I       :'il. 


If! 
I*' 

hi'  i 

M 


m  f 


l- 

y 

i 

■  1 

i 

'f 

.  h 

\  ■ 

\- 

t 

I 

l  ' 

214 


REORGANIZED   CANADA,   1G6.H-1672. 


Queylus. 


1CC9. 


Turenne's  army,  and  more  recently  under  Courcelles  in  his 
inroad  into  the  Iroquois  country.  During  this  winter  in  the 
wihlerness,  Dollier  had  seen  a  slave  of  the  Indians,  whose  own 
coxnitry  was  afar  off  towards  the  southwest,  and  he  had  sent 
the  savage  to  Montreal.  Here  the  fellow  inspired 
Queylus  of  the  Sulpitian  mission  with  a  desire  to  reach 
with  his  missionaries  this  distant  land,  of  which  its  native  spoke 
so  glowingly.  In  the  autumn  of  1668,  that  Sulpitian  had  estab- 
lished a  mission  station  for  his  order  at  the  Bay  of  Quinte,  on 
the  northern  verge  of  Lake  Ontario,  and  he  was  quite  in  the 
mood  of  adding  to  the  Sulpitian  agencies  another  in  this  dis- 
tant region,  some  seven  or  eight  hundred  leagues  away,  as  they 
understood  the  slave's  story.  Queylus  represented  to  Dollier 
that  the  chance  of  guidance  thither,  which  this  man  offered, 
was  an  opportunity  not  to  be  lost  in  the  service  of  the  church. 
Dollier  had  agreed  to  the  proposition,  when  Laval  ojiportunely 
came  to  Montreal,  and  gave  Dollier  a  letter  of  author- 
ity (May  15, 1669),  and  commended  him  to  the  assist- 
ance of  the  Jesuits,  wherever  he  might  encounter  them.  liaval 
recommended  him  to  work  among  the  Ottawas  of  the  Missis- 
sippi region,  using  that  tribal  name  in  a  generic  way,  and  ap- 
plying it  to  all  that  people's  kindred,  wherever  they  might  be 
found. 

Just  here  it  occurred  to  Courcelles  to  strengthen  the  chances 
of  success  by  uniting  La  Salle's  and  the  Sulpitians' 
the  siiipi-  parties  in  one  enterprise,  and  he  urged  upon  the  Sul- 
'  '*  ^°"''  pitians  to  abandon  the  direct  western  route,  which 
they  had  proposed,  and  to  follow  the  more  southerly  direction 
which  La  Salle  intended.  Galince,  another  Sulpitian,  some- 
what versed  in  surveying  processes,  had  been  joined  with  Dol- 
lier, and  the  two  now  came  into  Courcelles's  plan.  The  expe- 
dition thus  took  on  a  sort  of  double  control,  which  did  not 
argue  well  for  its  success.  Queylus,  not  having  great  faith  in 
La  Salle's  proficiency  in  the  native  tongues,  added  a  Dutchmai 
to  the  company,  who  could  talk  in  Iroquois,  but  who  unfortu- 
nately had  little  knowledge  of  French. 

On  July  6,  1669,  La  Salle  concluded  the  contract  for  the 
and  «tart,  ^alc  of  his  landed  property,  and  on  the  same  day  the 
1669,  j..i;  6.  ij^tjg  flotilla  floated  out  into  the  St.  Lawrence  and 
headed  upstream.     The  party  was  more  than  half  of  La  Salle's 


II 


GALINKE'S  JOUUNA  L. 


215 


L's  in  his 

r  in  the 

lose  own 

had  sent 

inspired 

to  reaeli 

ive  spoke 

ad  estab- 

uinte,  on 

e  in  the 

this  dis- 

,  as  they 

D  DoUier 

ti  offered, 

e  church. 

portunely 

3f  aiithor- 

bhe  assist- 

n.    liaval 

le  Missis- 

Y,  and  ap- 

niight  he 

te  chances 
5ulpitians' 
I  the  Sul- 
ite,  which 
direction 
Ian,  sonie- 
with  Dol- 
rhe  expc- 
\\  did  not 
it  faith  in 
Dutchmai. 
>  unfortu- 

;t  for  the 
le  day  tlie 
fence  and 
La  Salle's 


choosing.  The  twenty  men  which  constituted  it,  in  their  seven 
canoes,  looked  back  to  those  who  wished  them  (iod-speed  vith 
not  all  the  assurance  that  sometimes  emboldens  doubtful  enter- 
prises, for  there  was  by  no  means  a  certainty  that  the  peace 
with  the  Iroquois  was  stable  enough  to  last  till  their  intended 


LAVAL. 

[From  Suite's  Caiiadiens-Franfiiis,  vi.] 

intercourse  with  those  Indians  was  passed.      Two  canoes  of 
Senecas  returning  to  their  homes  led  the  way  as  guides. 

In  following  the  events  of  the  expedition,  we  must  depend 
upon  the  journal  which  Galinee  has  left,  now  pre-  „  ..  . , 
served  in  the  great  library  at  Paris.      Of  the  map  journal  and 

.  map. 

which  accompanies  it  there  is  a  copy  in  the  library  of 
Harvard  College,  from  which   the   annexed   sketch   is   made. 


H: 


'^5 


Alii 


m 
I'll 


rl 


216 


REORGANIZED   CANADA,  1003-1672. 


WM  I 


The  contents  of  this  journal  were  first  made  known  to  American 
scholars  by  Mr.  O.  H.  Marshall  in  1874,  but  the  full  text  ap 
peared  later  in  Margry's  documentary  publication. 


[Prom  P.  Duval's  (feoftrnithie  Vnirerselle.  This  atlas  of  a  French  Geographer  Royal  served  to 
keep  up  the  notion  (1C58-1C8'J)  that  the  Ottawa  and  not  the  Niagara  conducted  the  uatcra  of  Luke 
Erie  to  the  sea.] 

The  object  of  La  Salle  was  first  to  go  to  the  Seneca  villages, 

where  he  hoped  to  obtain  guides  for  further  progress.     The 

canoes  passed  into  Lake  Ontario,  and,  following  the  southern 

shore,  they  reached  Ironde(iuoit  Bay  on  August  20, 

August  26.  ^^^         ^,.  ,  ^  .  -,    r>  •  i 

At  ironde-     1669.     On  this  samc  day,  1  reniin  and  Cjrarnier,  who 
were  holding  the  Jesuit  mission  among  the  Senecas, 


LA  SALLE  ON  LAKE   ONTARIO. 


217 


mericati 
text  ap« 


Q 

H 


i 


i^yit:!! 


■oyiil  sprviMl  to 
vatera  of  L;il5e 


1,  villages, 
3SS.  The 
southern 
.ugust  20, 
nier,  who 
5  Senecas, 


left  their  post  for  Onondaga  to  attend  a  general  council  of  the 
.l«'8uitH  then  working  in  the  Iro(|uoiH  country.  It  has  been  sus- 
])ected  that  they  got  word  of  the  landing  at  Irondequoit  and 
absented  themselves  conveniently,  in  order  to  harass  the  Sulpi- 
tians  by  depriving  them  of  the  means  of  communication  with 
the  Indians.  From  the  landing,  I  i  Salle,  Ciralinde,  and  a  few 
others  made  their  way  to  the  mission,  only  to  find  that  the  Jes- 
uits,  to  whom  the  letter  of  Laval  accredited  them  for  kind  offices, 
were  gone.  What  Fremin  and  his  companion  had  anticipated 
—  if  the  theory  of  willfiU  desertion  is  allowed  —  was  soon  ap- 
parent, for  it  does  not  appear  that  La  Salle's  acquaintance  with 
the  Iroquois  tongue  was  of  much  service,  and  the  strangers 
were  sadly  at  a  loss  in  trying  to  communicate  their  desire  to 
secure  guides.  The  savages  could  do  nothing  but  feast  the  new- 
comers. They  after  their  own  fashion  .added  to  the  entertain- 
ment by  putting  to  the  torture  a  prisoner  whom  it  was  supposed 
they  had  captured  on  the  bank  of  the  very  river  of  which  La 
Salle  was  dreaming.  What  intelligent  intercourse  the  French 
had  seems  to  have  been  brought  about  by  the  aid  of  a  servant 
of  Fremin,  whom  that  missionary  had  left  behind,  and  through 
him  La  Salle  tried  to  ransom  the  poor  prisoner,  as  likely  to  be 
such  a  guide  as  he  wanted,  but  he  could  offer  no  inducement 
equal  to  the  joys  of  torturing.  Through  the  same  interpreter 
the  French  got  new  descriptions  of  a  broad  prairie  laud  to  the 
south,  which  stretched  a  long  distance  without  trees ;  Among  the 
and  they  heard,  as  Galinee's  journal  tells  us,  of  a  Heli*r8"o''f  the 
people  who  lived  in  a  warm  and  fertile  country,  hard  ^'"°" 
by  a  river  which  flowed  so  that  it  must  run  ultimately,  as  was 
thought,  into  the  Mexican  Gulf  or  the  Vermilion  Sea.  Such 
were  the  reports  of  the  yet  undiscovered  Ohio. 

The  feasts,  in  which  the  visitors  shared,  resulted  in  drunken 
orgies,  and  the  Frenchman  began  to  be  alarniecl  at  the  possible 
dangers  of  inflamed  passions.  They  had  heard,  moreover,  that 
there  was  farther  to  the  west  a  better  way  of  finding  this  river. 
All  this  easily  moved  them  to  return  to  the  lake,  which  they  did 
without  mishap. 

Once  more  afloat,  the  little  flotilla  moved  on  tow^icls  the  set- 
ting  sun.     They   passed   the  Niagara  River  without        ^^^ 
entering;  it,  and  noted  the  sound  of  the  distant  cata-  soum}  of 

"  ,      Ningara* 

ract,  and  Galinee's  account  of  it  is  perhaps  the  earli- 


I 


Jl? 


1 

i 

1 

t 

•  i 

J     ^ 

\'-i 

•i 

•  ■  3 

;  ■  ? 

- ,  / 

'      : 

i '  i 

.      ■  ■  ■■    ■ 

■      * 

3 

I   > 

.1 

.■;■ 

If:^1  I 


'!■   !      ! 


18; 


218 


REORGANIZED   CANADA,  1063-1673. 


est  we  have,  except  from  Indian  sources.  They  reached  at  last 
the  extreme  western  end  of  Ontario,  and  found  welcome  at  an 
Indian  village.  Here  La  Salle  came  in  contact  with  a  prisoner 
from  the  Shawnee  tribe  held  by  these  villagers,  and  this  man 
told  the  French  that  it  was  a  six  weeks'  journey  from  where 
they  were  to  the  great  river,  and  that  he  could  lead  them  there. 
It  was  contrived  to  make  this  fellow's  captors  offer  him  as  a 
gift,  and  La  Salle  gladly  accepted  him. 

Just  at  this  juncture,  word  came  from  a  neighboring  village 
that  two  Frenchmen  had  arrived  there  from  the  west.  We 
must  go  back  a  little  to  account  for  their  appearance. 

In  February,  1G69,  Talon,  who  was  then  in  France,  informed 
Colbert  that  he  had  brought  with  him  from  Canada  a  young 
voyageur  who  felt  confident  of  finding  a  way  from  Lake  Hu- 
ron either  to  the  South  Sea  or  to  Hudson's  Bay,  and  that  the 
man  had  already  gone  to  a  greater  distance  west  than  any  one 
else,  and  was  ready  to  go  still  farther.  This  was  Pere, 
a  frequent  figure  in  these  western  explorations,  and 
when  Talon  shortly  after  returned  to  Canada,  Pere  was  with 
him.  With  Colbert's  countenance,  the  intendant  was  prepared 
to  make  new  efforts  to  probe  the  secrets  of  the  west.  Plans 
were  soon  made,  and  Joliet,  then  at  the  settlements,  together 
with  Pere,  was  sent  with  the  chief  object  of  discovering 
the  deposits  of  copper  near  Lake  Superior,  of  which 
there  had  been  many  stories  afloat.  He  was  also  expected  to 
discover  if  there  was  not  a  way  of  bringing  the  ore  to  Quebec 
better  than  that  by  the  Ottawa  route,  with  its  laborious  por- 
tages. Colbert  had  not  failed  to  make  Talon  understand  that 
to  discover  and  make  merchantable  at  a  profit  such  copper  de- 
posits was  of  more  importance  than  to  find  any  passage  to  the 
South  Sea,  and  for  some  time  after  this  Talon  fed  the  minis- 
terial cupidity  with  such  stories  as  he  could  gather  of  huge 
lumps  of  copper  lying  exposed  on  the  shores  and  islands  of 
Lake  Superior. 

It  now  turned  out  that  the  Frenchmen  whom  La  Salle  found 
to  be  in  his  vicinity  were  Joliet  and  his  companion, 
on  their  return  from  this  copper-seeking  expedition. 
La  Salle  and  Joliet  were  not  long  in  establishing  friendship, 
and  the  young  explorer,  who  was  not  far  from  the  age  of 
La  Salle,  had  much  to  say  that  interested  the  other.     Joliet 


Joliet  sent 
west. 


Tliey  meet 
La  Salle. 


^i 


GALINEE  AND  DOLLIER. 


219 


told  these  new  friemla  about  his  journey,  and  though,  as  it 
seemed,  he  was  not  to  carry  back  to  the  intendant  any  extrava- 
gant hopes  about  copper,  he  could  tell  him  of  a  new  way  which 
he  had  opened  for  the  growing  communications  with  the  west. 
He  had  descended  the  strait  which  led  from  Huron  to  Erie,  and 
had  for  the  first  time  followed  eastward  the  northern  shore  of 
that  lake.  Fearing  if  he  continued  to  its  outlet  by  the  Niagara 
River  that  he  would  encounter  the  Iroquois,  Joliet  had  turned 
up  the  valley  of  the  Grand  lliver,  —  an  affluent  on  its  northern 
shore,  —  and  by  this  route  had  struck  the  shores  of  Ontario  near 
its  western  extremity.  He  exhibited  to  La  Salle  a  map  which 
he  had  made  of  his  route,  extending  in  its  most  western  limit 
to  the  land  of  the  Pottawattamies  and  other  more  remote  tribes, 
which  the  missionaries  had  not  yet  reached.  This  map  appealed 
more  to  the  Sulpitians  than  it  did  to  La  Salle,  who  was  little 
inclined  to  abandon  his  purpose  of  finding  a  more  direct  south- 
western route. 

So  it  was  resolved  that  the  party  going  west  should  be  divided, 
and  the  two  divisions  parted  company,  not  without  La  Saiie  aep- 
some  sai'casm  on  Galinee's  side,  who  would  have  us  be-  GaYim4 Tnd 
lieve  that  La  Salle's  determination  to  stay  behind  was  ""luer, 
quite  as  much  due  to  an  illness  bi'ought  on  by  the  sight  of  some 
rattl(!snake3  as  by  any  choice  of  route.  Before  separating, 
however,  they  all  joined  in  the  celebration  of  mass,  and  then  the 
Sulpitians  took  the  trail  to  the  Grand  River  and  Lake  Erie,  as 
they  had  learned  it  from  Joliet. 

On  reaching  the  lake  shore,  Dollier  and  his  conii)anion  found 
a  sheltered  i)lace  for  a  winter's  soiourn,  and  built  their 
bark  huts  and  closed  in  their  solitary  altar.  The 
months  passed  quietly.  •  They  found  food,  and  suffered 
nothing  from  intruders.  They  had  looked  during  these  weary 
weeks  across  the  great  lake,  and  gazed  wistfully  upon  its  limit- 
less waters,  gentle  or  in  turmoil  as  tlic  storms  came  and  went. 
But  not  an  object  along  that  southern  horizon  helped  them  to 
picture  that  distant  unseen  shore  of  the  lake  where,  as  yet,  no 
white  man  had  trod.  It  was  to  remain,  as  it  proved,  for  many 
long  years,  almost  unknown  to  the  explorer,  if  for  no  other 
reason,  because  a  passage  following  it  westward  is  thirty  leagues 
longer  than  the  route  which  skirts  the  northern  shore. 

As  the  spring  approached,  these  solitary  wanderers   made 


oil  Lake 
Kric, 


ly 


i*l'ii:;'H 


i-i;'! 


•111' 


];■) 


I -I    i 


111! 

i  it 


220 


REORGANIZED   CANADA,   1663-1672. 


W    ''A 


% 


<  1 


I 


1670. 


ready  to  move  on  ;  but  before  departing  they  raised  a  cross  and 
formally  took  possession  of  the  country  in  the  name  of 
possession  of  the  Frcuch  king.  The  instrument  which  they  sub- 
scribed is  still  preserved,  and  is  printed  by  Margry. 
This  ceremony  over,  they  bade  adieu  to  what  had  been  to  them 
on  the  whole  a  fortunate  retreat,  and,  packing  their  altar  service 
and  munitions  in  their  canoes,  they  paddled  to  the  west,  facing 
the  balmy  air  of  the  spring.  This  was  on  March  26. 
But  a  mishap  overtook  them.  One  night,  landing 
for  their  rest,  they  failed  to  secure  their  canoes  properly,  and, 
the  wind  rising  while  they  slept,  one  of  their  boats  was  washed 
out  into  the  lake,  and  disappeared.  It  contained  their  religious 
symbols  and  their  store  of  powder.  The  dilemma  of  being  in 
the  wilderness  without  sacred  vessels  and  with  no  defense  was 
enough  to  make  it  apparent  that  they  must  abandon  their  pur- 
pose of  establishing  missions,  and  seek  to  return  as  best  they 
could.  The  obvious  course  was  to  make  their  way  to  one  of 
the  western  posts  and  seek  an  escort  of  the  annual  flotilla  down 
the  lakes. 

If  Joliet  had  been  the  first  white  man  to  pass  the  Detroit 
River,  going  east,  Dollier  and  his  companion,  taking  that  track 
in  a  reverse  way,  were  the  earliest  to  paddle  by  the  same  river 
from  Erie  to  Huron.  They  now  passed  to  the  Sault  Ste.  Marie, 
and  reached  its  mission  in  May,  1670.  Here  they  found  two 
priests,  Dablon  and  Marquette,  in  a  palisaded  inclosui-e,  with  a 
chapel  within.  These  missionaries  had  started  a  gai'den  close 
at  hand,  and  were  thus  the  earliest  to  begin  to  develop  the 
agricultural  resources  of  that  region.  Laval's  commendations 
of  the  new-comers  to  the  Jesuits  seemed  likely  to  produce  no 
better  welcome  here  than  in  the  Seneca  country,  and  the  Sul- 
pitians  hardly  cared  to  tarry  in  order  to  make  larger  trial  of 
their  hosts'  hospitality.  So,  securing  a  French  guide,  they  did 
not  wait  for  the  annual  flotilla,  but  followed  at  once  the  Ot- 
tawa route,  and  by  June  18  they  were  again  in  Montreal. 
Galinee  took  this  first  respite  from  his  labors  to  prepare  a  plot 
of  the  region  which  he  and  Dollier  had  traversed.  It  is  the 
earliest  map  which  has  come  down  to  us  of  the  upper  lakes, 
constructed  a  year  before  St.  Lusson,  as  we  have  seen,  made' 
his  ceremonial  at  the  Sault.  One  of  the  marked  features  of 
this  Galinee  map  is  a  sketch  of  the  northern  shores  of  Lake 


GALINEE'S  MAP. 


221 


<< 


-<^o 


!  ■  ;  I 


;;) .' 


I  ! 


1 1  'i 


■\  I 

. 

;  4 

i 

u 

!  i 

1  > 

; 

r 

'  ';  • '' 

\    '^' 

i  ;  ! 

1    .. 

i '  i 

J 

■ 

i     i 

J 

222 


REORGANIZED   CANADA,   1663-1673. 


I    ! 


.  i: 


11 


W  !!' 


Erie,  never  before  comprehended,  and  henceforward  the  narrow 
river  of  Champlain  was  to  give  phice  to  something  like  an  ade- 
quate conception  of  this  last  of  the  Great  Lakes  to  be  mapped. 
It  is  somewhat  surprising  to  find  an  entire  absence  of  the  Straits 
of  Mackinaw,  and  apparently  Michigan  and  Huron  are  made 
one  expanse.  It  is  also  clear  that  Galince  had  not  yet  surmised 
what  the  Jesuit  map  of  Lake  Superior  was  so  soon  to  make 
clear,  that  the  great  water  beyond  the  Sault  Ste.  Marie  was 
larger  than  the  Mer  Douce,  on  the  hither  side  of  that  strait. 
Dablon  and  Marquette,  during  the  stay  of  Dollier  and  Galinoe 
at  the  Sault,  had  apparently  been  reticent  as  to  what  had  been 
done  towards  developing  the  outline  of  the  larger  lake.  This 
map  of  Galinee  is  supposed  to  be  the  one  to  which  reference  is 
made  in  the  lielation  of  1670-71,  as  showing  the  missions 
among  the  Ottawas,  where  it  is  described  as  "  very  curious  and 
very  exact,  inasmuch  as  they  have  set  down  nothing  but  what 
these  two  fathers,  who  made  the  journey,  had  seen." 


'  \ 


{  J 


I-  '  * 


II   ' 


La  Salle's 
movements, 


We  need  now  to  try  to  discover  what  was  done  by  La 
Salle  after  he  parted  with  the  Sulpitians,  and  after 
he  had  had  his  interview  with  Joliet  at  the  western 
end  of  Ontario.  It  is  not  quite  certain  that  his  particular  com- 
panions stood  by  him  in  what  subsequently  happened,  and  some 
of  them  at  least  are  supposed  by  Faillon  to  have  deserted  La 
Salle,  returning  to  Montreal,  perhaps,  with  Joliet.  It  is  not 
easy  to  account  for  the  lack  of  definite  information  as  to  the 
way  in  which  La  Salle,  with  w  at  following  he  kept,  now  turned, 
unless  it  be  supposed  that  his  maps  and  journals  for  the  next 
two  years  have  never  come  to  the  knowledge  of  those  who 
could  use  them  in  making  a  record  of  his  movements.  There 
are  somewhat  vague  statements  as  to  such  papers  being  in  ex- 
istence about  the  middle  of  the  last  century  ;  but  the  tale  is 
shrouded  with  doubt.  Indeed,  every  statement  which  we  have 
about  La  Salle's  wanderings  at  this  time  is  oi)en  to  suspicion. 
Perrot  says  tliat  he  met  La  Salle  on  the  Ottawa  in 
1G70  ;  but  there  is  nothing  known  to  corroborate  such 
an  assertion,  and  it  seems  improbable.  What  purports  to  be  a 
record  of  talks,  which  La  Salle  later  made  at  Paris,  in  1G78,  re-' 
f erring  to  this  obscure  period  of  his  life,  is  found  in  a  HUtmrc 
lie  3/oni<leui'  La  Salle,  which  Margry  prints.     Who  La  Salle's 


1C70. 


LA   SALLE'S  RnUTE. 


223 


interlocutor  was  is  not  known,  and  this  and  other  doubtful  as- 
pects of  the  paper  have  caused  divided  opinions  as  to  its  trust- 
worthiness, and  there  is  strong  tendency  among  careful  inves- 
tigators to  give  it  scant  credence. 

Maigry,  who  does  not  waver  in  his  trust  in  the  document, 
used  it,  to  his  own  satisfaction  at  least,  in  presenting 

Murcrrv's 

a  claim  for  La  Salle  to  have  found  the  Ohio  in  1670,  view  is  that 
reaching  the  Mississippi  by  it,  and  in  1671  to  have  the  Miasis- 
gone  by  Lake  Michigan  to  the  Chicago  portage,  and 
so  to  have  reached  the  "  great  water  "  once  more  by  the  channel 
of  the  Illinois.     This,  if  true,  places  to  La  Salle's  credit  the 
discovery  of  both  the   Ohio  and  the  Mississippi.     It  is  note- 
wortiiy  that  this  claim  for  La  Salle,  a  Norman,  has  found  its 
chief  supporters  in  Margry  and  Gravier,  both  natives  of  the 
same  part  of    France.     Some  other   writers,  like  Butterfield, 
have  given  it  a  qualified  adhesion.     It  has  not,  however,  been 
accepted  by  most  of    those  entitled  to  be  heard,  and  indeed 
Margry's  reputation  has  been  pretty  severely  handled  MarRry's 
in  general  by  those  who  have  tracked  his  historical  *=^»'^*«""'- 
methods.     Suspicion  has  more  than  once  arisen  both  as  to  his 
honesty  and  official  fidelity  as  a  keeper  of  records  held  for  the 
public   advantage.     Eminent   assailants  like  Major  and    Shea 
have  not  been  tender  in  their  blows. 

This  Histoire  makes  La  Salle  leave  the  spot  where  he  parted 
with  Dollier,  and  return  to  the  Iroquois  country,  and  pass 
thence  south  by  Onondaga.  It  is  not  easy  to  discover  what 
water  route  through  the  wilderness  could  have  taken  him  by 
Onondaga,  and  various  conjectures  have  been  advanced  to  open 
a  probable  way  for  him.  Denonville,  at  a  later  day,  poubts 
says  that  La  Salle  had  been  at  Niagara  in  1668,  and 
this  has  been  supposed  to  refer  to  his  passage  by  the 
portage  of  the  great  cataract  at  this  time.  There  is  also  the 
route  which  we  may  conjecture  he  took  by  French  Creek,  and 
that  by  Chautauqua  Lake,  both  known  later  to  the  French ;  or 
possibly,  as  Gravier  holds,  he  may  have  gone  up  the  river  from 
where  Cleveland  now  stands,  and  so  reached  the  Muskingum 
River,  —  any  of  which  would  ultimately  have  led  him  to  the 
Oliio.  The  truth,  it  is  to  be  feared,  is  likely  forever  to  elude 
search. 

The  document  to  which  we  have  referred  states  in  addition 


about 
La  Salle's 
course. 


'■  i;  J 


m 


m 


i\  •■\, 


"^\ 


:'     )       ! 


.=).,;i 


i?c'ji  • 


I! 


1 1 


il' 


!       I; 


224 


REORGANIZED   CANADA,   1663-1G7S. 


Stopped  by 
falls. 


that  at  the  farthest  point  which  La  Salle  reached,  his  men  de- 
serted him,  and  left  him  to  wend  his  way  back  alone.  Where 
was  this  point  of  desertion  ?  Margr;-  contended  for  a  while 
that  La  Salle  had  reached  the  Mississippi  when  he  was  thus  for- 
saken. Favkman  thinks,  for  various  reasons,  that  it  might  Iiave 
been  at  the  rapids  of  the  Ohio  opposite  the  modern  Louisville, 
but  it  is  difficult  to  suppose  the  descriptions  of  the  Histoire 
could  apply  to  those  rapids,  or  that  he  could  have 
viewed  the  country  below  them  as  the  morass  which 
that  narrator  declares  it  to  be.  The  account  says  of  the  descent 
of  the  water,  "  Ou  elle  tombe  de  fort  haut  dans  de  vastes  ma- 
rais."  This  presents  two  difficulties  in  view  of  the  conditions, 
as  now  understood.  The  fall  at  Louisville  is  only  twenty-seven 
feet  in  two  and  a  half  miles,  and  those  who  would  reconcile  the 
statement  prefer  to  render  "  de  fort  haut "  by  "  after  a  long 
course."  As  to  the  vast  marshes,  it  has  been  suggested  that  a 
high  state  of  the  river  may  have  produced  "  drowned  lands." 

In  Marcel's  additions  to  Harrisse's  Cartography  of  New 
France^  General  J.  S.  Clark  —  one  of  the  most  assiduous  of 
our  students  in  this  field  —  is  quoted  as  believing  that  La 
Salle's  course  was  in  the  first  instance  by  Lake  Michigan  and 
the  portage  to  the  Wabash,  which  La  Salle  called  the  Ohio, 
and  that  the  falls  which  stopped  him  were  those  of  the  W^abash 
at  Logansport,  while  in  1671-72  he  went  by  the  Chicago  port- 
age to  the  Illinois,  descending  it  to  Peoria,  still  calling  it  the 
Ohio. 

In  what  is  known  as  Joliet's  larger  map,  made  four  years  after- 
wards (1674),  there  was  originally  no  Ohio  River  laid  down  ; 
but  a  later  hand  has  apparently  sketched  its  course,  and  marked 
it  as  the  river  "  by  which  the  Sieur  La  Salle  had  gone  to  Mex- 
ico." This  addition,  if  authentic,  would  confirm  La  Salle's  dis- 
covery of  the  Ohio,  but  would  not  settle  the  extent  of  his  trav- 
ersing it.  But  the  alteration  in  the  Joliet  map  is  awkward, 
and  General  Clark  is  not  alone  in  supposing  that  the  change 
was  fraudulent,  in  order  to  make  good  the  claim  for  La  Salle. 


Since  1862,  when  Margry  first  formulated  the  claim  for  La. 
Salle,  he  has  found  some  supporters  and  more  detractors. 
Under  the  pressure  of  adverse  criticism,  Margry  has  ceased  of 
late  years  to  claim  that  La  Salle  readied  the  Mississippi  by  the 


MARGRY  AND  LA   SALLE. 


225 


loug 


Ohio,  but  is  content  to  assert  that  he  did  nothing  more  than  to 
follow  the  latter  stream  for  some  distance. 

That  La  Salle  reached  the  Ohio  and  pursued  it  for  a  while 
is  conceded  by  Parkman  and  others,  and  it  is  contended  that 
La  Salle's  later  memorial  to  Frontenac  (1677)  carries  a  certain 
conlirmation  of  the  claim.  Dr.  Shea's  latest  judgment  left  the 
(question  thus :  "  La  Salle  by  way  of  Lake  Erie  reached  the 
Illinois  or  some  other  affluent  of  the  Mississippi,  but  made 
no  report  and  made  no  claim,  having  failed  to  reach  the  main 
liver."  This  decision  of  the  learned  author  of  The  Catho- 
lic Church  in  Colonial  Days  puts  the  conclusion  very  fairly. 


If  Margry  has  wavered  in  his  position  as  respects  the  Ohio 
route  of  La  Salle,  he  has  persistently  contended  for  La 
Salle's  passage  to  the  Illinois  by  the  Chicago  Kiver,  ™'!}'*^^'* 
and  thence  to  the  Mississippi.     That  he  reached  the  ajfid  the 
head  of  Lake  Michigan  is  not  unlikely,  but  it  may 
be  a  question  whether  it  was  the  Chicago  or  St.  Joseph  River 
•».'hich  he   entei-ed ;  and  it  is  still  more  debatable  whether  he 
reached  by  either  route  the  Mississippi  itself.     Margry  claims 
that  he  did,  and  that  he  descended  it  to  latitude  36°,  which 
was  far  enough  to  satisfy  him  that  its  course  thence  was  south 
to  the  Gulf  of  Mexico,  and  not  southwest  to  the  Gulf  of  Cali- 
fornia. 


1 1 


•;  i 


1   :■ 


i  ^ ' 


:\  i 


'\ 


; 


i  .  : 


I 


r-.i 


•i, 


H 

11!!: 

'I' 

'V  ♦■? 

j< ''  ' 
I-  i 


i     lllilllfl 


!  ii! 


il! 


Mill!' 

i"!l!!l 


i!  ill'i 


Hi! 


iiin 


226 


REORGANIZED   CANADA,   1663-1672. 


There  are  some  embarrassing  facts  for  Margry  and  his  ad- 
heieuts  to  surmount  in  any  endeavor  to  put  La  Salle  before 
Marquette  as  the  actual  discoverer  of  the  Mississippi.  It  was 
notorious  at  the  time  when  this  Histoire  purports  to  have  been 


JOLIET'S 


written  (1678),  that  Marquette  had  first  reached  the  great  river 
in  1673,  and  in  the  intervening  years  there  had  been  no  denial 
of  the  fact.  If  this  paper  produced  by  Margry  is  genuine,  it 
is  strange  that  La  Salle's  brother  and  other  kindred,  when 
making,  after  La  Salle's  death,  a  memorial  to  the  king  for  com- 


JOLIETS  MAP. 


227 


pensation  on  account  of  their  kinsman's  services,  do  not  men- 
tion any  such  expedition  of  1671. 

The  inference  is  hardly  to  be  avoided,  either  that  the  ques- 
tionable document  has  deceived  Margry,  or  that  he  knows  more 


' ';  ■.;. 


SMALLER  MAP. 


of  its  history  than  he  cares  to  disclose.  It  is  unfortunate  that 
there  is  any  suspicion  attached  to  any  paper  in  the  important 
collection  of  documents  which  the  United  States  government 
has  assisted  M.  Margry  to  publish. 


i!  'If 


.  ft 


I  14  I) 


4  .;  : 


ml 


U 


■:  1 


I  'i 


228 


liEORGANIZED   CANADA,   1663-1672. 


That  La  Salle's  projects  had  failed  of  fruition  in  the  opin- 
ion of  those  who  knew  the  man  at  Montreal  seems  to  be  indi- 
cated by  the  mocking  name  of  La  Chine,  which  they  were  in- 
duced to  apply  to  the  estate  he  had  parted  with,  in  derision  of 
his  abortive  attempt  to  find  his  way  to  China. 


'•il 


1-;::f 


\\S- 


l'    !     i>  ! 


I!   .ilPil' 


I        .-:h 


CHAPTER  X. 


THE  MISSI8SIPPI  REACHED. 


1673. 


I 


I.,,,  rj 
.  Ill     k 


There  have  been  opinions  at  times  entertained,  but  upon  no 
recognized  authority,  that  the  Jesuit  fathers,  Deguerre  in  1652, 
Drocoux  in  1657,  Allouez  in  1668,  and  Pinet  in  1670,  as  well 
as  a  priest  of  the  seminary  of  Quebec,  Augustine  Eariyai- 
Meulan  de  Circe,  also  in  1670,  had  visited  the  Illinois  l*^fe  mu* 
and  the  Mississippi  previous  to  the  expedition  of  Jo-  •'**'??'• 
liet  and  Marquette.     The  late  Dr.  Shea,  who  was  for  many 
years  an  ardent  student  of  everything  connected  with  the  fame 
of  Marquette,  long  ago,  in    he  Collections  of  the  Wisconsin 
Historical  Society  (vol.  iii.),  set  such  stories  at  rest.     They 
apparently  originated  in  the  confused  brain  of  a  comparatively 
recent  and  irresponsible  chronicler  of  Catholic  missions  in  the 
west. 

There  is  also  a  story  (referred  to  in  the  preceding  chapter) 
of  some  explorers  going  from  Virginia  beyond  the  AUeRed  ex- 
Appalachians,  in  1671,  sent  by  Governor  Berkeley,  from  vTr* 
under  the  direction  of  General  Wood,  "  for  the  find-  8"''"'  ^*^"- 
ing  out  the  ebbing  and  flowing  of  the  water  on  the  other  side 
of  the  moun1  lins,  in  order  to  the  discovery  of  the  South  Sea." 
This  account  s  in  a  diary,  beginning  September  1, 1671,  which 
was  first  printed  in  the  Neio  York  Colonial  Documents  (vol. 
iii.).  It  was  originally  sent  to  the  Royal  Society  in  London, 
and  read  before  it  in  August,  1688.  The  explorers  reached 
their  most  westerly  point  on  September  17,  where  they  marked 
some  trees  with  the  king's  name.  From  an  eminence  they  then 
saw  "  a  glimmering  light  as  from  watei',"  which  they  supposed 
to  be  a  great  bay.  A  certain  Mohican  Indian  informed  them 
of  a  very  large  number  of  Indians  living  thereabouts  upon  a 
great  water.     Mr.  Clayton,  who  communicated  this  journal  to 


'.'  ,<i 


!:iM 


ini! 


• 


U:'., 


280 


77/ /i    MISSISSIPPI   li  EACH  HI),   lGr,i. 


lii:^ 


1  ■  (A 


'  i 


!'.|l! 


th(!  Uoyiil  S()(!ii!ty,  said  in  a  letter  dated  Auf^uHt  17,  1C88,  that 
Colonel  Hyid  declared  the  glimmer  seen  by  the  explorers  not  to 
be  a  bay  with  ebb  and  How,  but  a  lake  then  (1G88)  possessed 
by  the  French,  who  had  "  seated  themselves  in  the  back  of  Vir- 
ginia," where  there  were  several  largo  lakes  "  betwixt  that  and 
Canada."  John  Mitchell,  the  later  geographer  of  the  conti- 
nent, in  some  remarks  on  this  story  in  1755,  made  no  doubt  of 
its  truth,  saying  that  it  had  already  been  mentioned,  but  with 
less  distinctness,  by  Robert  Beverly  in  his  History  of  Virginia^ 
and  that  the  water  seen  was  probably  Wood  liiver,  as  it  was 
later  called,  or  the  Great  Kenawha,  as  it  is  now  named. 

This  same  journal  records  that  initials  were  found  cut  on 
trees ;  and  it  is  assumed  that  these  traces  were  left  by  earlier 
explorers,  who  had  been  sent  out  by  the  same  General  op  Colo- 
nel  Wood,  as  eai'ly  as  1G54,  and  that  their  visits  were  contin- 
ued till  lGG-4.  It  is  fair  to  say  that  the  whole  story  has  no  suf- 
ficient attestation,  r<nd  is  open  to  a  suspicion  that  the  incidents 
were  simply  intended  to  give  color  to  English  claims  beyond 
the  mountains,  of  earlier  date  than  the  French.  It  was  used 
certainly  for  this  purpose  in  tracts  by  the  English  at  the  tinu! 
of  the  treaty  of  17G3. 

Mitchell  also  adds  in  much  the  same  spirit  that  a  party  of 
Alleged  ex-  ^^^f  Englaudcrs  in  1G78  coursed  down  the  Ohio,  and 
&'ew  KuR-"'"  crossed  the  Mississippi ;  but  he  produces  no  proofs, 
land,  1078.  tliough  he  asscrts  that  it  was  the  fruit  of  such  exploit 
which  sent  La  Salle  to  the  Ohio  in  1G80,  certain  Indian  guides 
of  the  English  party  having  later  gone  to  Canada,  and  accom- 
panied the  French  explorer.  Somehow  he  ignores  the  explo- 
rations of  La  Salle  in  1GG9,  which  he  might  well  never  have 
heard  of.  We  have  seen  that  there  is  the  best  of  reasons  for 
believing  that  Nicolet  had  at  least  heard  of  the  Mississippi  as 
early  as  1634,  and  that  it  is  not  unlikely  that  Grosseilliers,  in 
1659,  had  come  in  contact  with  the  stream  in  its  upper  courses. 

Parkman  seems  to  credit  a  map  which  does  not  indeed  show 
the  Mississippi,  but  gives  the  Ohio  to  a  point  a  little  below 
Louisville,  that  stream  bearing  the  legend,  "  By  which  La  Salle 
descended."  This  historian  considers  the  map  to  have  been 
made  before  the  voyage  of  Joliet,  and  that  a  small  section  of 
the  upper  waters  of  the  Illinois  which  it  shows  stands  for  the 
exploration  which  La  Salle  made  of  them,  in  the  year  following 


TALON  AM)  DISCOVEHY 


281 


Ills  visit  to  tlio  Ohio.  This  would  phu'o  tho  map,  if  Purkman  is 
iit;lit,  oarly  in  1073.  Th«»re  is  a  U'giMid  on  it,  which  shown  that 
the  maker  of  it  believed  the  Mississippi  to  flow  into  the  Mexi- 
can gulf.  I'aiknuin's  conclusion  as  to  such  priority  is  disputed, 
liowever,  by  Shea,  who  claims  that  a  similar  map  found  iu  tho 
Palis  archives  was  drawn  by  .foliet  himstdf,  after  his  «»wn  ex- 
ploration. His  inference  consecpicutly  is  that  La  Salle's  oxidoits 
were  simply  added  at  a  later  day.  This  objection  has  not  in- 
diu!cd  Parkinan  to  change  his  views,  as  they  are  repeated  in  his 
revised  edition. 


i 


We  come  to  more  certain  ground  when  we  reach  the  indubi- 
table expediti<m  of  1073.  There  was  no  cavil  heard  when  the 
State  of  Wisconsin  placed,  in  1885,  in  the  capitol  at  Washing- 
ton, a  statue  of  Marquette,  as  the  first  explorer  of  that  affluent 
of  the  ^Hssissip})i  which  gives  a  name  to  the  State. 

Talon  had  determined  to  signalize  his  administration  before 
it  closed  by  the  settlement  of  two  geographical  quos-  Tnionnn.i 
tions.     lie?  had  sent,  as  we  have  seen,  Father  Albanel,  '!''"'"'"'■>• 
in  August,  1071,  to  find  an  easy  rcmte  north  by  the  Sn^uenay. 
On  SeittembtM"  17,  the  jn-iest  and  his  party  had  reached 
Lake  St.  John,  and  there  the  Indians  told  them  of  Aiimnei 
two  English  ships  trading  in  Hudson's  Bay.     When 
the  spring  o])ened,  the  explorers  pushed  on,  and  soou  found  an 
English  trading-house  on  tho  shores  of  the  bay.     Avoiding  con- 
tact, they  erected  the  usual  i)illar  of  possession. 

Charlevoix  tells  us  that  it  was  the  chief  ambition  of  the  in- 
tendant  to  solve  the  i)roblem  of  the  great  western  river. 


Tlu>  Hearcli 


and  this  was  Talon's  second  geograi)hical  problem.  In  for  a  west- 
June,  1072,  Colbert  had  written  to  the  intendant  that 
there  was  no  more  important  movement  to  be  started,  after  all 
efforts  had  been  made  to  insure  the  increase  of  the  colony,  than 
to  make  it  certain  tliat  this  great  river  of  the  west  flowed  into 
the  Gulf  of  California,  so  that  a  ])assage  could  be  opened  to  the 
South  Sea.  At  the  same  time,  this  French  minister  was  sending 
threatening  messages  to  Si)ain,  that  the  French  flag  in  the  Gulf 
of  Mexico  could  not  be  disregarded  Avithout  hazard,  as  if  there 
might  yet  be  a  conflict  over  the  luoutli  of  this  same  river,  should 
it  i)rove  to  flow  more  diiectly  south.  The  English,  as  yet,  were 
hardly  observant  of  this  ambitious  aim  of  the  French,  and,  as 


Ml 


\:i 


{^.i 


1 

i  i  i 


1^  J  , 


ll  '  1 1 


iili 


2S2 


THE  MISSISSIPPI  REACHED,  1673. 


Frontenac 

governor, 

1672. 


Talon 
recalled. 


Coklen  tells  us,  they  accounted  the  pushing  energy  which  car- 
ried the  Canadians  so  far  west  as  only  the  yearning  for  more 
productive  soils  than  Canada  had  been  found  to  possess.  While 
the  urgency  of  Colbert  and  the  hopes  of  Talon  were  thus  plan- 
ning for  the  future,  Father  Dablon  returned  from  the  upper 
lakes  and  rehearsed  his  glowing  descriptions,  and  they  were  not 
without  effect  in  giving  shape  to  the  skirriug  notions  of  the 
hour. 

But  there  was  a  new  and  vigorous  spirit  just  come  to  the 
ripening  task.  Louis  de  Buade,  Comte  de  Frontenac, 
had  been  appointed  governor  in  April,  1672,  even 
before  Colbert  was  sending  to  Talon  his  renewed  in- 
structions about  western  explorations.  Frontenac  did  not  arrive 
till  the  autumn,  and  Talon  soon  discovered  that  he  was  not  a 
man  to  his  liking,  and  had  time  to  transmit  his  adverse  criticism 
before  the  government  named  a  new  intendant,  and 
Talon  was  recalled.  T.vlon  was  not  alone  in  feeling 
the  dislike  which  Frontenac  soon  succeeded  in  evoking  on  all 
hands. 

The  new  governor  was  too  marked  a  character  every  way  to 
make  things  easy.  He  was  now  fifty-two  years  old, 
and  a  successful  life  as  a  soldier  with  honorable 
wounds  made  him  imperious.  His  blood  was  good,  with  a 
strong  dash  in  it  of  Basque  virility.  His  estate  was  ruined,  and 
he  had  made  an  unfortunate  marriage.  If  he  could  not  endure 
his  wife,  she  never  ceased  to  have  a  certain  pride  in  him.  He  by 
no  means  gave  her  the  exclusive  effects  of  his  prejudices.  If 
thwarted  he  grew  red  and  chafed,  and  he  made,  if  he  did  not 
find,  opportunities  for  his  anger.  His  will  was  headstrong. 
His  habits  of  life  were  extravagant ;  so  he  had  sometimes  little 
scruple  about  using  his  position  to  make  money.  He  was 
consequently  continually  confronted  with  disagreeable  allega- 
tions against  his  official  conduct.  He  knew  how  to  meet  thcni 
unblushingly.  His  language  could  be  at  times  us  full  of  acerb- 
ity as  his  heart  was,  when  he  was  aroused ;  and  his  conduct  had 
u  vindictiveness  by  which  passion  sometimes  usurped  the  rights 
of  foresight. 

Yet  he  had  his  merits,  and  he  served  New  France  as  hardly 
another  could  at  a  trying  time.  He  was  vigorous,  robust,  hardy, 
and  when  necessary  he  could  draw  himself   up  in  grandsur. 


Frontenac's 
character. 


FRONTENAC  AND  EXPLORATION. 


233 


He  was  too  liberal  in  his  Catholicism  to  please  the  ascetics,  but 
wliether  this  was  because  he  was  impelled  by  wider  sympathies, 
01*  because  he  saw  some  gain  in  it,  may  be  questioned.  He  cer- 
tainly hated  the  Jesuits,  and  they  bore  no  love  towards  him. 
He  was  like  Talon  in  one  respect,  —  he  would  have  packed  the 
fathers  off  to  France  summarily,  if  he  had  dared  to  do  it.  The 
last  of  their  Relations  which  was  printed  announced  xue  Jesuit 
Frontenac's  arrival  in  Canada,  and  that  the  publica-  ^^,g'er''pub°.° 
tion  of  these  annals  then  ceased  has  been  charged  ''*''^''* 
upon  his  influence.  His  quarrels  with  the  governor  of  Montreal 
and  with  the  Sulpitians  were  quite  as  violent  as  his  hate  of 
the  Jesuits,  and  it  was  only  towards  the  Recollects  that  he  was 
tolerant,  and  that  perhaps  for  the  reason  that  he  could  play 
them  off  conveniently  against  the  Jesuits.  This  enmity  of  the 
Jesuits  he  never  quieted,  and  it  played  a  fateful  part  in  his  sus- 
taining the  ambition  of  La  Salle.  He  could  be  an  Indian  with 
the  Indians,  and  the  priests  never  forgave  him  when  he  divided 
with  them  a  control  of  the  savage  nature,  and  welcomed  native 
children  into  his  household. 

Frontenac  began  his  administration  with  an  act  that  drew 
upon  him  the  reproof  of  his  king.  He  held  a  convocation  of 
the  three  estates,  the  clergy,  the  nobles,  and  the  commons,  and 
sought  to  mete  out  their  powers  in  a  community  of  government. 
The  king  was  prompt  to  disapprove,  and  the  whole  machinery 
of  the  government,  under  royal  coercion,  fell  back  into  the  old 
ruts.  Never  was  there  a  more  fatal  infraction  of  the  rule  that 
colonies,  to  succeed,  need  to  be  let  alone.  The  new  life  of  a 
colony  can  only  become  virile  by  self-reliance  and  self-asser- 
tion. That  ancient  policy,  always  lurking  in  church  if  not  in 
state,  has  successfully  cultivated  respect  for  absolutism  in 
French-speaking  Canada  even  to  the  present  moment. 

The  site  of  Quebec  had  impressed  the  new  governor,  as  ho 
approached  it  for  the  first  time,  as  fit  to  be  the  lordly  seat  of  an 
empire  of  courageous  men.  He  found  he  must  make  the  colony 
under  his  master's  wand  one  of  subservient  subiects. 

_,  -If.        111.  1  1     Frontenac 

ine  rebuff  turned  his  thoughts  from  the  scenes  around  tuma  to 

^  •  !•  rt-i-i  11  I'l  1  exploration. 

him  to  distant  fields,  and  he  set  his  heart  on  the  success 
of  exploration. 

Talon  already,  before  the  arrival  of  Frontenac,  had  selected 
Joliet  for  the  new  task,  —  a  choice  which  Frontenac  confirmed. 


i 


I 


m 


111 

m 


I ; } 


iM 


II 


234 


THE  MISSISSIPPI  REACHED,   1673. 


Bill  I, 


I    I 


;  ( 


.  i 


S'  '  I 


m 


h  1 ! 


I  i! 


La  Salle's 
doings. 


'II:! 


This  leader  was  now  a  little  less  than  thirty  years  old.  He  was 
joiiet'8  ^  Canadian  by  birth,  a  son  of  a  wagon-maker.  He 
character,  j^^^j  \^qqi^  educated  Under  Jesuit  influences.  A  passion 
for  trade  had  led  him  into  a  roving  life,  and  we  have  seen  that 
the  government  had  selected  him  a  few  years  before  to  discover 
a  new  route  to  Lake  Superior.  In  this  work  he  had  proved  in- 
telligent and  useful.  His  whole  career  showed  that  he  could  be 
faithful  to  his  charge,  without  evincing  in  any  way  exceptional 
powers  of  command.  Frontenac,  after  Joliet  had  started  on  his 
mission,  wrote  to  Colbert  that  the  man  had  had  great  experience, 
His  aims  in  and  that  he  promised  to  find  the  Mississippi  byway 
discovery.  ^£  Grccu  Bay,  and  that  he  would  probably  make  it 
clear  that  its  outlet  was  in  the  Gulf  of  California.  Dablon  at 
the  same  tinie,  in  reporting  to  his  superior  in  Paris,  counted 
upon  the  expedition  opening  a  way  to  China  and  Japan. 

La  Salle  was  absent  at  this  period  on  his  somewhat  obscure 
errand  in  the  direction  of  Lake  Michigan.  It  has  been 
claimed  that  he  had  traversed  the  Chicago  portage, 
and  had  coursed  the  upper  affluent  of  the  Illinois,  if  he  had  not 
actually,  as  Margry  would  have  us  believe,  descended  to  the 
Mississippi  itself.  As  he  did  not  return  to  Montreal  till  Se])- 
tember,  1672,  and  as  Joliet  had  left  a  month  before,  the  latter 
could  not  have  known  anything  of  La  Salle's  efforts,  unless 
they  had  met  on  the  way,  and  of  this  there  is  no 
record.  Joliet,  by  December  8,  had  reached  Mackinac 
(Michillimackinac,  as  it  was  then  invariably  called), 
and  here  he  })assed  the  rest  of  the  winter  in  preparing  for  the 
undertaking  and  deriving  what  information  lie  could  from  the 
Indians  who  hung  about  that  post.  He  found  in  the  priest 
jNIaiquette,  who  kept  the  mission  there,  a  prompt  and 
natural  sympathy.  This  Jesuit  was  eight  years  the 
senior  of  his  companion,  and  had  come  of  a  good  family  in  tlic 
north  of  France.  lie  had  at  this  time  been  two  years  minister- 
ing to  the  vagabond  Ilurons,  who  were  still  trying  to  keej)  to- 
gether under  all  sorts  of  adverse  circumstances.  For  five  years 
before  he  began  his  work  among  this  tribe,  he  had  had  divers 
ex})eriences  at  other  missions.  While  at  St.  Esprit,  he  had  come 
in  contact  with  wandering  bands  of  the  Illinois,  and  he  continuctl 
ever  after  to  harbor  the  hope  that  he  might  at  some  time  find  a 
way  to  settle 'among  them,  as  they  had  expressed  a  wish  to  have 


1072,  Dec.  8. 
Joliet  at 
Mackinac. 


Marquette. 


|!|l 


Va       { 


MACKINAC. 


235 


him.     Joliet's  project  therefore  appealed  strongly  to  the  Jesuit's 
inclination,  as  the  intended  route  must  lead  to  the  Illinois  coun- 


MACKINAC,   UkSS. 
[From  La  Houtnu'a  Xoiitriiii.r  Vni/ayes.] 


try,  of  which  so  much  had  been  heard  in  pleasant  contrast  to  the 
deadly  heat  and  forbidding  monsters  that  this  people  insisted 


I . 


4mm 


'  4ili| 


236 


THE  MISSISSIPPI  REACHED,  1673. 


m 


i! 


li 


on  apportioning  to  the  lower  country  beyond  them.  Dr.  Shea 
holds  that  there  are  reasons  for  believing  that  before  Joliet  left 
the  settlements,  Laval  had  picked  out  Marquette  for  the  ex- 
plorer's companion ;  but  the  evidence  is  not  clear.  That  Mar- 
quette did  decide  to  join  Joliet  seems  to  imply  that  some  higher 
authority  had  permitted  his  leaving  his  post  at  Mackinac. 
Marquette's  own  assertion  to  that  effect  is  explicit  enough ; 
but  any  conclusion  must  certainly  leave  Joliet  as  the  recognized 
official  head  of  the  expedition. 

During  the  winter,  the  two  drew  from  the  Indians  informa- 
tion enough  to  enable  them  to  map  out  their  route  prospec- 
tively, but  this  map  is  not  preserved,  unless  indeed  we  have  it 
in  some  one  of  the  several  maps  ascribed  to  Joliet,  which  are 
known.  All  these  maps  have  usually  been  placed  after  his  ex- 
perience of  1673. 

It  was  not  till  May  17,  1673,  that  the  party  set  out  in  two 
1G73,  May.  cauocs, — Jolict,  Marqucttc,  and  five  companions.  It 
Marquette  ^^^^  nearly  forty  years  since  Nicolet  had  started  on 
start.  |.j^g  same  course,  and  had  been  the  first  to  enter  what 

is  now  known  as  Green  Bay.  Late  in  1669,  Allouez  had 
ojiened  a  mission  on  its  west  shore,  in  the  midst  of  a  motley 
jiopulation  of  Indians,  a  strange  mixture  of  the  three  great 
stocks  of  the  Dacotahs,  the  Huron-Iroquois,  and  the  Algon- 
quins. 

This  "  Grande  Baye,"  i)ervertcd  by  the  later  English  to  Green 

Bay,  was  not  inviting  in  the  name  it  then  bore,  for  from 

fini/e  lies  '    the  carlicst  knowledge  which  the  French  had  had  of  it, 

Putins. 

they  had  in  the  JJat/e  des  Ptians  associated  it  with 
what  to  an  inland  Indian  was  an  odor  far  from  agreeable,  that 
of  the  salt  sea.  In  a  then  recent  lidation  of  the  Jesuits,  the 
writer  had  thought  to  account  for  the  ai)pellation  through  the 
fetid  effluvia  from  the  marshes  which  bordered  the  bay  in  Konie 
parts.  Marquette  says  he  hunted  for  salt  springs,  to  see  if  their 
existence  could  have  suggested  the  name ;  but  he  could  find 
none,  and  came  to  the  cojiclusion  that  the  name  was  given  be- 
cause of  the  slime  and  mud  "  constantly  exhaling  noisome  va. 
pors,  which  cause  the  loudest  and  longest  peals  of  thunder  " ! 
Tlie  violent  and  almost  oceanic  storms  which  sometimes  swep£ 
across  it  might  possibly  have  been  sufficient  to  suggest  the 
name. 


JOLIET  AND  MARQUErTE. 


237 


By  the  end  of  the  first  week  in  June,  1673,  the  adventurers 
had  ascended  the  Fox  River,  and  found  themselves  in 
the  country  of  the  Mascoutins,  the  Miarais,  the  Kicka-  on  the  fox 
poos,  and  the  Foxes,  —  the  latter,  of  all  tribes  which 
the  French  encountered,  the  most  averse  apparently  to  Chris- 
tian influences.  From  among  these  tribes  the  party  secured 
guides  to  lead  them  across  the  portage.  It  is  another  proof  that 
Nicolet  had  not  passed  to  the  Wisconsin,  that  Marquette  be- 
lieved he  had  now  reached  the  limits  of  the  early  French  efforts. 
The  carry  they  found  an  easy  one,  through  a  level  region,  and 
somewhat  less  than  two  miles  across,  through  marshes  and  ponds 
filled  with  wild  rice.  The  Fox,  indeed,  at  the  point  they  left  it, 
was  but  five  feet  lower  than  the  Wisconsin,  and  in  high  stages 
of  water  the  current  of  the  latter  was  sometimes  diverted  to- 
wards Green  Bay.  Once  over,  and  parting  with  their  guides, 
they  launched  their  canoes  on  that  affluent  which  the  Mascou- 
tins had  said  would  conduct  them  in  a  west-southwest  course  to 
the  great  river.  Following  an  obscure  and  devious  channel 
through  a  growth  of  wild  oats,  they  only  extricated  themselves 
from  its  mazes  to  find  their  canoes  grating  upon  the  sandbars 
which  perplex  the  navigation  of  the  Wisconsin.  If  ontheWis- 
sueh  were  their  perplexities,  there  was  much  about  '=""^'" 
them  to  command  their  praise.  They  soon  ran  into  a  region  of 
rich  bottom  lands,  diversified  by  undulations  that  were  topped 
with  trees.  Festooning  vines  hung  from  branches  which  here 
and  there  flecked  the  gentle  current  with  their  shadows.  Now 
a  dense  copse  of  walnut  and  oak,  as  well  as  trees  that  were 
new  to  them,  stretched  along  the  bank.  They  swept  round 
ishinds  in  the  stream  as  it  broadened,  and  saw  tangled  climbers 
bearing  down  the  imprisoned  bushes.  In  the  opens  they  espied 
the  roebuck,  and  encountered  singly  or  in  herds  *•'  the 
Illinois  oxen  clothed  in  wool,"  for  the  buffalo  had  been 
more  or  less  familiar  to  the  French  for  ten  years,  and  now 
loamed  in  this  region,  though  destined  to  be  pushed  beyond  the 
jNIississippi,  where  the  mature  man  of  to-day  can  remember  how 
they  stopped  by  their  surging  masses  the  progress  of  railway 
trains,  and  compelled  the  steamboats  to  slow  up  as  they  swam 
the  waters  of  the  Missouri ;  and  where  the  child  of  to-day  may 
possibly  never  see  them  more. 

As  the  canoes  went  on,  the  sun  glinted  upon  fluttering  wings 


■  ■  i- 


If 


iiiii 


1 6 


mil 


I        SI 


238 


THE  MISSISSIPPI  REACHED,  1673. 


I-  >, 


H  i 


I,   {'  5 


!& ' 


' !  I  111: 


I  ;; 


l^;i:' 


i  I 


im 


On  the  Uig 
sisaippi. 


among  the  wild  rice  in  one  place ;  and  a  rocky  scarp  made 
shadows  in  another,  where  cedars  caused  a  jagged  bristling  edge 
to  run  along  the  sky.  Marquette  calls  the  stream  the  Mescon- 
sing,  for  so  he  had  caught  the  Indian  utterance,  but  the  name 
was  later  made  more  liquid  in  the  Ouisconsin  of  Hennepin,  out 
of  which  our  modern  Wisconsin  was  naturally  evolved,  and 
fixed  at  last  by  legislative  sanction. 

It  was  the  17th  of  June  when  their  canoes  shot  out  into  the 
parent  current  and  they  were  afloat  on  the  Mississippi. 
They  sounded  and  found  nineteen  fathoms  of  water, 
and  they  might  well  have  believed,  had  they  suspected  it,  that 
this  mighty  channel  poured  to  the  sea  a  greater  volume  of 
water  than  all  the  united  rivers  of  Europe,  if  the  Volga  be 
omitted.  Not  forgetting  the  haughty  man  at  Quebec,  whose 
fortunes  he  felt  he  was  bearing,  Joliet  named  the  river  La 
Buade,  in  recognition  of  the  governor's  family  stock.  The  de- 
votion of  Marquette  to  the  great  dogma  of  his  church  scarcely 
allowed  him  to  recognize  any  but  the  religious  motives  influ- 
encing his  share  in  the  adventure,  and  he  fulfilled  a  promise 
which  he  had  formed  in  giving  the  great  river,  on  his  part,  the 
name  of  Conception,  —  with  something  of  the  fervor  which  had 
warmed  the  Spaniard  a  century  and  a  half  before,  when  he  be- 
stowed upon  it  at  its  mouth  the  name  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  —  a 
name,  however,  which  had  some  latitude  of  application  along 
the  gulf  shore.  Marquette  at  the  same  time  records  its  native 
name  as  "  Missipi." 

It  must  have  been  with  strange  and  swelling  sensations  that 
these  wondering  men  saw  the  night  fall  about  them.  On  the 
one  hand  a  range  of  high  hills  lay  darkening  the  declining 
day.  On  the  other  the  light  of  the  dropping  sun  rose  from  the 
variegated  meadows,  and  gleamed  upward  from  eloud  to  cloud ; 
and  when  all  w.:s  dark  and  the  stars  shone,  one  may  well  ima- 
gine the  iunnensity  of  the  hope  which  animated  tiiem,  and  a 
sense  of  the  uncertainty  of  the  future  upon  which  they  had 
entered. 

Neither  Joliet  nor  the  priest  could  have  had,  'u  the  then  exist- 
ing geographical  conceptions  of  the  interior  ot  j-    -th  America, 
any  adequate  idea  of  the  vastness  of  the  valley  v     ?h  they  were' 
aiming  to  acquire  for  France.     The  latest  geo  rapnical  conjec- 
tures were  shown  in  the  map  which  Sanson  i  abli.shed  in  1669. 


THE  MISSISSIPPI  VALLEY. 


239 


native 


Lake  Michigan  was  depicted  in  this  as  of  uncertain  extent,  and 
from  a  large  bay  on  the  north  side  of  the  Gulf  of  Mexico  a 
group  of  radiating  streams  drained  the  southern  part  of  the  val- 
ley, while  all  else  was  void. 

The  proclamation  of  St.  Lusson  two  years  before,  seeking  to 
embrace  a  region  that  stretched  between  bounding 
oceans,  north,  west,  and  south,  was  simply  audacious  graphical 
and  not  based  on  knowledge,  —  the  immensity  of  the 
area  would  have  appalled  them,  had  it  been  suspected.  Fron- 
tenac,  with  the  inheritance  which  had  officially  come  to  him,  had 
attained  perhaps  some  idea  of  the  half  million  square  miles  of 
territory  which  afforded  two  thousand  miles  of  navigable  water 
from  the  east  to  the  west,  in  the  St.  Lawrence  and  the  lakes. 
He  hnew  that  its  dividing  ridges  bordered  upon  the  great  in- 
terior valley  beyond  the  country  of  the  Iroquois,  and  again  at 
the  head  of  Lake  Michigan,  and  at  no  great  distance  from 
poijits  which  missionaries  and  traders  had  reached  at  Lake 
Superior.  But  even  Frontenac's  imperial  eagerness  had  little 
conception  of  a  water-shed  five  times  as  large  as  that  whose 
waters  flowed  before  Quebec,  and  whose  central  streams  could 
conduct  a  canoe  to  the  sea  over  a  course  three  thou-  T,,p  ^^^^^^ 
sand  miles  in  extent  from  the  country  of  the  Senecas  ;  "'pp'  ^*"^y" 
and  over  another  of  more  than  four  thousand  miles  from  the 
head  of  its  greatest  affluent,  far  in  the  northwest.  Thirty- 
five  thousand  miles  of  navigable  waters  converging  into  one 
in  the  midst  of  this  great  valley,  and  seeking  the  sea,  was  a 
wonder  that  exceeded  even  the  imagination  of  AUouez  in  his 
astounding  speech  to  the  Indians  at  the  ceremonial  of  St.  Lus- 
son, when  he  was  picturing  the  magnificence  of  the  Grand 
Monarch.  There  was  a  vastly  disproportionate  extent  in  it  for 
the  paltry  six  or  seven  thousand  Frenchmen  whom  Frontenac 
ruled  from  the  rock  of  Quebec,  and  who  were  to  be  made  the 
])eople  of  this  magnified  New  France. 

It  was  an  easy  matter  for  the  adventurous  explorers  to  go 
with  the  current  as  they  sped  downstream  by  day,  and  anchored 
away  from  shore  by  night.  Each  morning  early  astir,  they  were 
])repared  with  freshened  energies  to  come,  as  they  leisurely  pad- 
dled along,  within  the  range  of  new  surprises.  Now  they  saw 
a  formidable  fish.     Now  the  current  swept  them  round  bluffs 


H 


;  i 


i  ■  ■■  f 
;  t 


f  ;  i 


:1  i  •  !  J. 


i  '  'i 


V^-iH 


0\i 


Ih' 


sis 


i 


;H  iv :  I 


i! 


'l  I   'I 

liilli 


: 


IM 


I  Ij  '1: 


!     1!^ 


!li!i!i!f 


240 


rWS  MISSISSIPPI  REACHED,  1673. 


1G73,  June 
26.    They 
aee  human 
tracks, 
and  see  the 
Illinois 
tribe 


and  the 
Illinois 
River. 


or  between  divided  islands,  fresh  in  the  early  summer's  diversity 
of  verdure. 

They  had  been  a  week  or  more  on  the  great  river,  observing 
deer,  elk,  bison,  and  turkey,  but  they  had  not  seen  u 
sign  of  man,  when  on  June  25  they  espied  human 
footprints  on  the  western  bank.  A  well-used  ])ath 
conducted  the  two  leaders  to  a  native  village  of  the 
Illinois,  where  they  were  welcomed  and  made  to  feel 
safe.  They  saw  French  cloth  on  some  of  the  savages,  and 
learned  that  intertribal  traffic  had  probably  passed  it  along 
from  the  French  traders  on  the  lakes.  This  people  told  them 
the  same  stories  of  demons  and  dangers  to  which  a  persistence 
in  going  farther  would  subject  them ;  but  neither  the  trader  nor 
the  Jesuit  could  be  intimidated  by  such  rehearsals. 

Once  more  on  their  way,  they  passed  the  mouth  of  the  Illinois 
(to  be  better  known  a  few  weeks  later),  and  wondered 
at  the  mocking  castles  which  Nature  had  made  or  the 
stratified  rock,  and  gazed  upon  the  rude  strokes  of 
pigment  which  the  Indians  had  combined  into  a  demoniac  figure 
on  a  rocky  scarp  above  them. 

After  some  days,  their  canoes  were  tossing  in  the  broken 
They  pass  Water  of  a  muddy  current,  which  poured  into  the  clear 
the  Missouri  Mississippi  with  such  a  volume  that  they  naturally 
looked  to  the  northwest,  from  which  it  came,  as  to  some  large 
water-shed.  It  was  clear  that  the  divide  which  held  it  was  to- 
wards the  great  ocean  of  the  west,  the  bourne  of  the  hopes  so 
long  delayed. 

They  learned  from  the  Indians  near  at  hand  what  seemed  a 
confirmation  of  their  belief.  "  I  do  not  doubt,"  says  Marquette. 
"  that  this  other  ocean  is  tire  Vermilion  Sea,  and  I  hope  some 
day  to  be  able  to  follow  this  inviting  channel." 

It  was  the  counningled  currents  of  the  Missouri  and  the 
Mississippi  which  they  had  reached,  and  this  flood  of  water  f  roiii 
the  west  convinced  Marquette  that  the  united  streams  must 
find  an  outlet  in  the  Gulf  of  Mexico.  It  was  to  be  a  hundred 
and  thirty  years  and  more  before  the  wonderful  interlacing  of 
the  springs  of  the  Missouri  and  the  Columbia,  and  of  the  L*a 
Platte  and  Colorado,  was  to  be  discovered.  The  Indians  called 
this  singularly  intrusive  and  polluting  stream  the  Pekitanoui,  or 


THE  OHIO  RIVER. 


241 


i,W.\ 


the  muddy  river ;  but  a  little  later,  when  more  was  known  of  the 
tribes  which  lived  on  its  banks,  it  was  generally  known  as  the 
river  of  the  Osages. 

The  adventurers  were  all  the  way  on  the  watch  for  other  indi- 
cations of  some  such  western  passag*},  for  it  soon  became  more 
and  more  evident  that  the  general  direction  of  the  Mississippi 
was  towards  the  south.  A  little  later  on,  Joliet  says,  he  heard 
of  a  tribe  lying  only  five  days  away  to  the  west,  which  traded 
with  others  from  the  coast  of  California. 

They  passed  by  the  site  of  St.  Louis,  then  covered  with  for- 
est, and  as  they  went  on  they  occasionally  held  out  the  calumet 
to  Indians  whom  they  saw,  but  as  yet  there  was  no  hostile  ac- 
tion in  any  of  them. 

They  came  to  the  mouth  of  the  Ohio,  which  Joliet  calls  on 
his  map  the  Ouabouskigon,  —  a  name  apparently  al-  ^nd  the 
lied  to  the  later  Ouabache,  or  as  we  have  it  in  an  ^'''°' 
E'i"lish  guise,  Wabash,  for  this  stream  and  the  Ohio  below  the 
r's  mouth  continued  to  be  accounted  one  during  the  long 
interval  yet  to  ensue  before  the  placating  of  the  Iroquois  per- 
mitted the  French  to  follow  the  upper  reaches  of  the  true  Ohio. 

Tlie  low  and  marshy  shores  which  bound  the  mouth  of  this 
branch  of  the  Mississippi  allow  it  to  mingle  its  waters  with  the 
main  current  with  less  impressivene.^s  than  is  suited  to  its  im- 
portance, and  add  a  sort  of  mystery  to  the  sources  of  its  capa- 
cious flow.  If  La  Salle  had  followed  it  from  the  Iroquois  coun- 
try some  years  before,  there  is  nothing  in  anything  that  Joliet 
or  Marquette  say  of  it  now  to  lead  one  to  suspect  that  they 
connected  it  with  any  exploit  of  an  earlier  discoverer.  Indeed, 
in  their  maps,  they  fail  to  associate  it  with  any  previous  know- 
ledge. The  stories  which  had  come  to  the  French  of  the  sav- 
age onsets  of  the  Iroquois  in  this  direction  were  vague,  but  the 
unavoidable  inference  was  that  the  river  whose  mouth  they  now 
were  passing  was  the  theatre  of  these  rancorous  wars,  in  which 
wanderinq;  Shawnees  and  tlie  confederates'  bands  met  ^ 

.  .  ,^,  Iroquois 

ni  deadly  struggle.     Joliet,  we  know,  had  seen  a  Shaw-  raiiisaioug 

,  .  -     the  Ohio. 

nee  i)risoner  in  the  hands  of  the  savages  at  the  end 
of  Lake  Ontario,  when  he  met  La  Salle  there  in  16G9,  and  he 
knew  that  the  prisoner's   country  lay  in  this   direction ;    but 
since  then  the  im])lacable  Ii'oquois  had  driven  the  Shawnees 
from  both  banks  of  the  river,  and  forced  them  back  into  the 


i  I 


:!^ 


I    :        i,i 


ii 


242 


THE  MISSISSIPPI  REACHED,   1G7S. 


W' 


|: 


\ 


i;Ji 


iHlihiH 


ill 


II 


1  i: 


M' 


July 


valley  of  the  Tennessee.  It  was  within  a  very  few  years  that 
the  Iroquois  had  thus  successfully  raided  this  tributary  valley. 
The  Arkansas,  whom  Joliet  was  soon  to  meet  lower  down  thu 
Mississippi,  had  also  fled  before  these  savage  confederates. 
The  Illinois,  whom  he  had  visited,  as  we  have  seen,  in  their  vil- 
lages west  of  the  great  river,  had  been  pressed  along  before  the 
same  inveterate  enemies,  who  had  used  this  valley  of  the  Ohio 
as  the  main  channel  of  their  approach.  Our  explorers  could  now 
have  little  suspected  what  risks  this  same  channel  was  to  open 
to  their  successors  in  these  western  parts,  when  their  Indian 
allies  were  hounded  to  the  death  by  those  same  tireless  foes. 
June  passed  into  July,  and  the  French  canocH  were  still  pass- 
ing on  with  the  current,  by  marsh  and  wood.  The 
Indians,  who  now  and  then  confronted  them  on  the 
banks  were  more  inclined  to  be  hostile,  but  the  calumet  never 
failed  to  appease  them,  though  it  sometimes  looked  as  if  the 
hazards  were  great.  Some  savages  whom  they  saw  on  the  east 
bank  had  guns  and  wore  European  cloth,  and  it  is  surmised 
that  they  had  got  these  articles  directly  or  by  intermediate 
traders  from  the  English  of  Carolina  or  Virginia.  At  a  village 
on  the  east  bank,  opposite  the  mouth  of  a  river  which  Joliet 
named  the  Bazire  after  a  fur  trader  in  Montreal,  but 
the  Arkan-  which  wc  kuow  as  the  Arkansas,  they  found  a  young 
Indian  who  could  make  himself  understood  in  the  Il- 
linois tongue.  From  him  they  learned  that  the  tribes  farther 
down  the  river  were  enemies  of  his  people,  and  had  firearms 
from  Europeans.  They  raised,  he  said,  three  crops  of  corn  a 
year.  When  asked  if  they  had  ever  seen  the  Euroj^eans  who 
supplied  the  guns,  they  replied  that  they  had  not,  as  the  inter- 
vening tribes  were  always  able  to  prevent  their  reaching  them. 
This  savage  interpreter  represented  that  the  outlet  of  the  river 
which  they  were  following  was  a  ten  days'  voyage  farther  on, 
but  with  extraordinary  speed  they  might  shorten  the  task  by 
half.  This  led  the  French  to  think  it  nearer  than  it  really 
was,  for  it  was  still  seven  or  eight  hundred  miles  away.  Their 
almost  unvarying  southerly  course  —  for  the  bend  of  the  river 
one  way  had  always  been  met  by  a  corresponding  reverse  —  had 
rendered  it  now  hardly  susceptible  of  doubt  that  it  was  neitliCT 
to  the  Atlantic  nor  to  the  South  Sea  that  they  were  tending, 
but  to  the  great  gulf  of  middle  America,  which,  if  their  infor- 


THE  CHICAGO  PORTAGE. 


248 


niation  was  correct,  placing  its  northern  shores  in  latitude  31" 
40',  was  not  far  distant.  They  had  thus  in  effect,  by  an  infer- 
once  which  was  unavoidable,  solved  the  problem  of  the  great 
river's  course.  If  they  went  on  they  could  scarce  do  more  than 
confirm  their  belief,  and  they  would  do  it  at  the  risk  of  losing 
the  fruits  of  their  discovery,  should  they  fall  into  the  hands  of 
the  Spaniards.  A  resolve  was  accordingly  taken  to  stop  at  this 
point  (which  Marquette  calls  33°  40')i  and  return. 

i  ,  r  t    t       Am      ^  i  ••      111  1073,  July 

It  was  therefore  on  July  17  that  they  reeni barked  at  i'    They 
Akamsea,  as  the  friendly  village  was  called,  and  be- 
gan their  arduous  ascent. 

It  is  not  worth  while  to  follow  their  laborious  journey  back 
in  detail.  Ou  ^'eaching  the  mouth  of  the  Illinois,  they  yielded 
to  the  representation  of  the  neighboring  Indians,  that  it  would 
lead  them  more  direct.  '  to  Mackinac,  and  turned  into  Ascend  the 
its  alluring  current.  It  was  a  pleasant  change  for  ""'"''■■ 
the  weary  voyagers,  for  the  stream  was  placid,  there  was  attrac- 
tive shade  under  its  umbrageous  banks,  and  rich  plains  opened 
between  the  hillocks,  dotted  with  bison  and  deer.  They  tarried 
awhile  at  Kaskaskia,  —  not  the  modern  town  of  that  name, 
but  an  Indian  village  of  the  Illinois  tribe,  whose  country  it  is 
not  always  easy  to  designate  at  different  periods,  but  which  lay 
in  the  main,  after  they  came  back  from  over  the  Mississippi, 
between  the  Wabash  and  the  banks  of  the  great  river.  This 
people  were  now  very  friendly.  They  tried  to  propitiate  Joliet, 
in  the  hopes  of  securing  French  aid  against  the  Iroquois,  of 
whose  ravages  they  were  in  constant  dread,  and  towards  Mar- 
quette they  turned  with  wishes  that  he  might  abide  with  them 
for  their  spiritual  comfort.  Joliet,  with  that  policy  which  had 
actuated  him  in  naming  the  great  river  after  Frontenac's  fam- 
ily, now  complimented  the  governor's  wife  with  naming  this 
tributary  stream  as  the  Divine  or  the  Outrelaise,  which  La 
Salle  later  was  to  supplant  with  the  name  of  the  French  colo- 
nial secretary,  Seignelay. 

Going  on,  the  weary  voyagers  turned  into  the  Des  Flaines 
River,  and   passed   the   elevation   which    the    trader  DesPUiues 
named  Mont  Joliet,  and  which  alone  of  all  the  names  ^"'"" 
bestowed   by   Joliet   preserves  his   memory  in  that  region  to- 
day.    This  eminence  lies  near  Joliet  city,  forty  miles  The  Chicago 
southwest  of  Chicago.    The  stream  led  them  to  the  p^^k*- 
Chicago  portage. 


tli 


*|i 


4l\ 


;   .i 


'].| 


244 


THE  MISSISSIPPI  REACHED,  1673. 


The  cutting  of  the  gorge  at  Niagara  had  opened  in  pro. 
historic  times  a  channel  for  the  outflow  of  the  upper  lakes,  in 
place  of  the  older  channel  by  the  Illinois  from  the  head  of  Lake 
Michigan,  where  there  is  scarce  eight  feet  of  rise  at  the  divide 
in  ordinary  seasons.  In  wet  seasons,  even  since  the  present 
century  came  in,  heavily  laden  boats  have  floated  from  the  lake 
to  the  Des  Plaines.  In  the  days  of  Joliet,  the  branches  of  the 
Chicago  River  and  the  headwaters  of  the  Illinois  interlaced  so 
nearly  that  in  ordinary  springs  the  portage  was  scarce  a  mile 
and  a  half,  and  was  obliterated  in  the  actual  waterway  which, 
in  very  wet  seasons,  existed  in  the  shape  of  an  expanded  lake. 
It  was  for  a  while  in  ordinary  seasons  dead  water  on  either 
side,  rippling  as  the  paddle  stirred  it,  when  the  spreading  eir. 
cles  broke  against  the  crowded  stalks  of  the  wild  rice.  In  very 
dry  weather  it  was  sometimes  necessary  to  carry  the  canoe  to 
the  confluence  of  the  Kankakee,  thirty  miles  below. 

There  is  no  clear  proof  that  any  white  man  had  preceded 
Joliet  and  his  party  in  the  passage  of  this  portage,  when  now 
its  practicability  readily  suggested"  to  him  the  ultimate  making 
of  a  canal.  One  cannot  be  sure,  however,  that  some  adven< 
turous  trader  had  not  preceded  them ;  and  we  certainly  find 
such  traders  at  no  great  distance  in  Joliet's  rear.  Th  theory 
of  La  Salle's  passage  of  it  the  year  before  has  already  been 
mentioned. 

Once  on  Lake  Michigan,  the  returning  canoes  found  their 
way  to  Green  Bay  by  the  end  of  September.  The  adventure 
had  cost  them  four  months  and  more,  and  they  had  traversed  a 
route  of  something  like  twenty-five  hundred  miles. 

Leaving  Marquette  at  Green  Bay,  in  much  need  of  rest,  for 
AtoreenBay,  ^^  had  bccu  gricvously  ill  on  the  return  trip,  Joliet 
passed  on  to  the  Sault  Ste.  Marie. 

The  following  summer,  Joliet  took  his  way  to  Quebec.  His 
last  opportunity  of  showing  his  papers  was  probably 
at  Fort  Frontenac,  where  he  briefly  tarried,  and  where 
he  found  La  Salle.  At  least  such  is  Dr.  Shea's  belief,  thouf^h 
Joliet  and  Harrisse  sees  no  satisfactory  evidence  that  La  Salle 
La  Salle.  could  havc  been  at  Fort  Frontenac  at  this  time.  That 
the  interview,  if  allowed,  produced  any  results,  is  far  from  clear. 
La  Salle  at  this  juncture  was  engrossed  with  his  trading  tours 
and  with  the  care  of  his  Seigneury  of  Caiaraqui.     If  Denon- 


1673. 


1674. 
Summer 


w* 


JOLIET'S  MAPS  AND  1' APE  US. 


246 


)  4 


ville's  memoir  U  to  be  believed,  La  Salle  in  these  expeditions 
was  accustomiiij^  himaolf  to  some  of  the  aftiuents  of  the  Ohio, 
ac(iuiring  that  knowledge  of  this  approach  from  the  Mississippi 
to  Ontario  which  was  later  in  his  mind  when  he  was  himself 
on  the  great  river  in  1680.  It  was  only  at  this  later  day,  when 
his  mercantile  speculations  were  at  a  low  ebb,  that  he  had 
bc'im  to  raise  visions  of  a  traffic  in  buffalo  skins  on  the  Mis- 
siasippi. 

Joliet  passed  on  to  the  St.  Lawrence.     All  went  well  till 
he  reached  the  rapids  above  Montreal,  where  his  canou  upset. 


1,  ''III 


Two  of  his  men  —  one  an  Indian  from  the  Mississippi  —  weic 
drowned,  and  a  box  containing  his  journals  and  other  jouefg 
papers  was  lost.     He  himself  barely  escaped  with  his  p*p*"  ^°'^*' 
life. 

Joliet  did  what  he  could  to  repair  the  loss  of  his  journals 
by  reviewing  his  recollections,  and  Frontenac  later  sent,  ap- 
parently without  success,  to  the  Sault  Ste.  Marie  to  recover  the 
copies  of  the  lost  papers  which  Joliet  had  left  there  with  the 
priests.  Dablon  tells  us  that  Joliet  had  also  given  a  copy  of 
his  journal  to  Marquette  before  parting  with  him,  but  no  such 


246 


THE  MISSISSIPPI  REACHED,   1673. 


h;.' 


ii'|!«i( 


i'^lll 


li 


ai'i 


i!l;,!i    t: 


"^■\% 


Records 
of  the  ex 
peditiuii. 


transcript  has  come  down  to  us.  Dablon  himself,  at  this  time 
in  Quebec,  had  apparently  talked  over  the  adventur- 
er's experience  with  Joliet  himself,  and  on  the  1st  of 
August  he  embodied  what  he  learned  in  a  communica- 
tion to  his  superior  in  Paris,  and  later,  in  an  amplified  form, 
it  was  included  in  one  of  his  annual  reports,  which  was  first 
printed  when  Martin  gave  it  in  his  Mission  du  Canada  (1801). 
The  narrative  as  Joliet  fashioned  it  upon  his  recollections  is 
also  to  be  found  in  two  forms  in  Margry's  collection,  and  Ilar- 


MERSulJVoyS 


'Golph.e.  5«i, 

JOLIET'S  CARTE  GKN1^;RALE. 

[SketolisJ  from  a  copy  in  the  Parkman  collection  (1(')81 '.' ),  and  signed  l;y  Franquelin.] 

risse  gives  us  a  brief  summary  which  the  explorer  offtu-ed  in  a 
letter  dated  October  10,  1074. 

Joliet  had  been  back  three  months  before  Frontenae  drew 
up  (November  14,  1074)  an  official  report  upon  the  trader's 
discoveries,  and  it  was  doubtless  with  small  exi)ectations  that 
he  forwarded  it  to  France,  for  during  the  siunmor  lie  had  had 
a  pretty  sharp  intimation  from  the  king  that  he  had  better  let 
pi'ojects  of  discovery  alone. 

Both  Frontenae  and  Dal)lon,  however,  made  the  most  tl\cy 
could  of  the  new  hopes  which  the  expedition  had  created,  — 
Dabloi:  with  a  more  intelligent  appreciation  of  the  case  than  the 


MARQUETTE'S  NARRATIVE. 


247 


governor  seemed  to  possess.  The  Jesuit  alleged  that  it  was 
ii()w  proved  that  if  a  bark  was  built  on  Lake  Erie,  there  would 
only  need  to  be  a  cut  or  canal  made  at  Chicago  for  one  to  sail 
through  to  the  Mississippi  and  the  sea ;  and  if  it  was  not  for 
the  fall-  d  Niagara,  the  vessel  could  start  from  Fort  Frontenac. 
The  governor  was  apparently  most  impressed  with  the  possibil- 
ity of  a  way  being  discovered  to  the  South  Sea  by  some  of  the 
western  valleys  of  the  Mississippi ;  but  he  was  also  struck  with 
the  ease  with  which  one  could  pass  from  the  St.  Lawrence  to 
the  Gulf  of  Mexico  with  only  the  portage  of  half  a  league  at 
Niagara  !  He  urged,  in  consequence,  that  a  settlement  should 
be  formed  near  that  cataract,  and  that  a  vessel  be  built  on  Lake 
Erie,  which  he  thought  in  ten  days  could  reach  the  gulf.  It 
seems  clear  that  Frontenac  had  not  quite  understood  what  Jo- 
liet  had  communicated,  or  that  explorer's  enthusiasm  had  spir- 
ited away  the  obstructions  at  Chicago.  The  governor  at  the 
same  time  sent  a  map  which  Joliet  had  constructed  with  such 
observations  as  his  memory  supplied,  and  this  has  come  down 
to  us,  being  first  introduced  to  scholars  about  ten  years  ago  by 
Gabriel  Gravier  at  Houen.  It  is  probably  the  earliest  jouet's  ear- 
map  to  define  the  course  of  the  Mississippi  by  actual  ''**'  ""^P" 
observation,  although  Joliet  connected  it  with  the  gulf  merely  by 
an  inference  which  he  felt  he  could  not  avoid.  Mar-  Marquette's 
quette's  contribution  to  our  knowledge  is  more  im-  """"t'^^- 
])ortant  on  the  whole,  and  not  so  dependent  on  recollection  as 
what  we  learn  from  Joliet.  His  recital  is  in  two  forms  as  given 
by  Margry,  but  it  was  originally  sent  by  the  priest  to  Dablon 
in  Quebec.  Dablon  used  it  in  his  JRcIatlon,,  and  sent  a  copy  to 
Paris,  while  the  original  seems  to  have  remained  in  the  Jesuit 
archives  at  Quebec  till,  some  time  after  the  dispersion  of  the 
order,  it  was  deposited  by  Father  Cazot,  the  last  survivor  of  the 
order  in  Canada,  in  the  Hotel  Dieu,  not  far  from  1800,  whence 
it  was  transferred,  apparently  about  1842,  to  the  College  of  Ste. 
Marie  in  Montreal.  From  its  nuns,  Martin,  a  returned  Jes- 
uit, received  it  and  committed  it  to  Dr.  Shea,  who  published 
it  first  in  English  in  his  Discovery  of  the  Mississijypi  (1853), 
and  two  years  later  separately  and  in  the  original  tongue  (New 
York,  1855).  It  had  been  prepared  for  publication  by  Dablon, 
appai-ently  in  1678  ;  but  had  remained  unedited  in  its  complete 
form  till  Shea  secured  it.     The  3Iission  du  Canada  has  since 


I     in 


'% 


:i; 


'  I  i 
M 


1     t: 


illiiiii; 


<■[ 


ii.  { « 


r    I 


lilil' 


I'rl 


■J] 


ill 


248 


r//^:  MISSISSIPPI  reached,  ms. 


H 
O 

a 


32 


H 

H 


MARQUETTE'S  MAP. 


249 


given  it  in  a  somewhat  changed  form,  very  likely  as  it  was  re- 
ceived in  Paris,  whither  it  was  serr  I  ,  Marquette  at  Fronte- 
nac's  request.  Thevenot  in  1680  included  an  imperfect  form 
of  it,  with  curtailments  and  omissions,  in  his  Recueil  de  Voy- 
ages,  and  also  issued  it  separately,  and  it  is  in  this  shape  that 
it  has  been  used  before  the  present  generation,  and  was  made 
familiar  to  English  readers  by  Hennepin  (1698)  and  at  a  later 
day  by  Sparks. 

There  was  one  feature  in  Thevenot's  publication  that  deceived 
scholars  for  a  hundred  and  seventy  years,  and  that  Marquette's 
was  the  map  which  he  gave  as  Marquette's.     That  "**p- 
editor  had  somehow  got  hold  of  a  contemporary  Jesuit  map, 

now  well  known,  and 
supposed  it  Mar- 
quette's. It  may  in 
fact  have  been  that 

iipN ^  which  J  o  1  i  e  t  had 

X^^cwAwv  drawn  from  recollec- 
tion, as  Dr.  Shea 
suggests.  The  genu- 
ine plot  was  discov- 
ered by  Shea  with  the  ori- 
ginal manuscript,  and  has 
since  been  repeatedly  repro- 
duced. 
Marquette,  who  had  for  some  years 
dreamed  of  a  missionary  field  among  the 
Illinois,  and  who  had  welcomed  the  oppor- 
tunity which  the,  companionship  of  Joliet 
gave  him,  was  not  destined  to  enjoy  a  long 
fulfillment  of  his  hopes.  He  had  lingered 
at  Green  Bay  on  his  return  till,  finding 
himself  in  the  spring  of  1674  in 
better  condition  of  health,  he  organ-  <i«iette  re- 
ized  a  party  of  Indians,  and  with  iiiiuoiscoun- 
ten  canoes  started  for  the  Illinois  country.  He  fol- 
lowed up  the  western  shore  of  Lake  Michigan,  which  he  de- 
scribes in  his  journal  in  the  oldest  account  of  this  shore  which 
we  have ;  bi\t  at  the  site  of  the  motlern  Chicago,  or  near  it,  he 
grew  sick,  and  found  it  necessary  to  remain  for  the  winter.     He 


MARQUKTTE'S  GENU- 
INE MAP. 


^ 

.:f. 

I:      1  \ 

/-! 

■t! 

'  I  .;:■>' 


]|H. 


i    i     V 

i    ;    > 


Ut 


H 


1 


250 


THE  MISSISSIPPI  P,E ACHED,  167S. 


I     I 


!i 


!  liili'i";!: 


m 


\  m 


f  I 


May  19, 
Dies. 


was  cheered  in  his  weariness  by  the  kind  attentions  of  every- 
body about  him.     Indian  and  trader  passing  that   way,  and 
hearing  of  his  prostration,  turned  aside  to  give  him  any  com- 
fort in  their  power.     The  spring  restored  his  strength  enougli 
1C75.   At      to  give  him  courage,  and  on  the  last  of  March,  1G75, 
Kaskaskia.     j^g  passcd  the  portage  and  went  on  to  Kaskaskia.   The 
savage  community  gathered  at  this  point  welcomed  him  as  ;i 
missionary  would  like  to  be  received,  and  he  turned  in  his  min- 
istrations from  hut  to  hut  amid  such  interest  as  he  had  never 
found  before  among  Indian  converts.     But  his  frame  was  not 
equal  to  his  spiritual  energy.    His  strength  failed,  and  it  became 
evident  that  he  should  get  back  if  possible  to  more  civilized 
care.     He  started  on  his  way  with  some  companions.   The  party 
crossed  the  portage  and  followed  the  eastern  shore  of  Lake 
Michigan.     On  May  19,  in  a  quiet  spot,  they  bore  the  prostrate 
man  ashore  and  left  him  to  his  devotions,  as  he  re- 
quested.    In  a  short  time  they  sought  him,  and  found 
him  dead.     They  dug  his  grave  on  the  spot,  and  went  their 
way,  bearing  the  sad  ticMngs  to  Mackinac.      The  nexi  year 
(1676),  some  Ottawa  Indians  exhumed  the  body,  and 
ly  buried  at    a  mclancholy  procession  of  thirty  canoes  accompanied 
the  holy  remains   to  St.  Ignaee.      Here,  beneath  tho 
chapel  of  the  iiussion,  they  gave  him  a  last  resting-place.     Two 
hundred  years  later  (1877),  some  excavations  were  made  on  the 
spot  where  the  chapel  is  supposed  to  have  stood,  and  a  few 
fragments  of  a  skeleton  were  found  and  gathered  for  a  new 
burial ;  but  the  pious  act  was  not  consummated  without  doubt 
being  thrown  upon  the  identity  of  the  bones,  inasmuch  as  the 
uncertain  descriptions  of  the  position  of  the  mission  which  have 
been  preserved  do  not  render  it  clear  beyond  doubt  whether 
its  shrine  was  on  the  north  or  south  shore  of  the  strait,  or  on 
the  intermediate  island.      Father  Jacker,  who  performed  the 
act  of  reburial,  felt  that  he  had  sufficient  ground  for  his  belief. 
Allouez  was  appointed  (1675)  to  succeed  Marquette  in  the 
1675.   Ai-      Illinois  mission  ;  but  interest  in  the   new  discovery 
ceeasMar-     ^^^  largely  ceased  with  the  death  of  Marquette  and 
.,uette.         i-ijg  withdrawal  of  Talon.     The  petition  of    Joliet  to 
be  allowed  to  establish  a   trading-post  on  the  Mississippi  was 
promptly  negatived  in  a  letter  of  Colbert  to  Duchesneau,  writ- 
ten on  April  28,  1677.     But  events  were  already  shaping  for 
new  scenes  and  new  actors. 


^i.;'i; 


"If 


CHAPTER  XI. 

CATARAQUI    AND   CRfevECCEUR. 

1673-1680. 

Frontenac  had  conceived  the  plan  of  establishing  an  ad- 
vanced post  on  the  northern  shore  of  Ontario.  It  was  partly 
with  the  expectation  of  intercepting  the  Indian  trade  with  the 
English  at  Albany,  and  partly  to  bring  a  mart  for  skins  nearer 
the  sources  of  supply.  The  project  disturbed  the  merchants  of 
^lontreal  as  likely  to  affect  their  own  intei'csts,  and  it  was  by 
no  means  satisfactory  to  the  Jesuits,  who  dreaded  its  influence 
on  the  Indians.  These  priests  were  even  accused  of  starting 
ill-otnened  rumors,  such  as  an  intended  attack  by  the  Dutch,  — 
now  temporarily  in  possession  of  New  York,  —  in  the  hope  of 
keeping  Frontenac's  attention  occupied  nearer  home. 

The  governor  was  not  a  man  to  be  intimidated  ;  and  he  soon 
sent  La  Salle,  between  whom  and  Frontenac  much  i,;;3  f,,o„. 
cordiality  had  arisen,  to  visit  the  Iroquois, and  to  invite  tiTenoquors^ 
the  confederates  to  send  delegates  to  a  council  near  *°  co'""^''- 
the  site  of  his  intended  fort.  Frontenac  was  aware  that  the 
recent  successes  of  the  Iroquois  in  diverting  the  western  trade 
to  the  factors  at  Albany  rendered  some  attempt  to  propitiate 
or  alarm  *^^he  confederates  highly  necessaiy. 

The  governor  had  made  many  preparations  for  his  journey  to 
the  rendezvous.  With  a  large  array  of  guards  and  a  parade  of 
staff  officers,  Frontenac  left  Quebec  on  June  3,  1673.  j„„p  3  ^^ 
His  rece])tion  at  Montreal  was  hearty  enough  to  con-  ^'""t'^"!- 
ccal  the  real  feelings  of  opposition  which  pervaded  that  settle- 
ment, and  when  he  left  that  place  to  move  forward,  on  June  28, 
it  was  with  a  considerable  increase  of  retinue.  He  had  about 
four  hundred  men  in  his  train,  manning  or  occupying  a  flotiUa 
of  one  hundred  and  twenty  canoes  and  ..wo  flatboats.  The  pro- 
cession had  hardly  passed  into  Lake  Ontario  when  an  Iroquois 


.  :■    ii 


I 


I     i 


I 


(  '  i 


:  ;!: 

;  i-K 

!    I 


252 


CATARAQUI  AND  CRkVEC(EUR. 


;  /.s  ! 


ill';.:  :    vl 


ilills 


I!  .     '  -I  . 


cauoe  was  met,  bringing  letters  from  La  Salle,  with  guides  to 
lead  them  to  the  spot  on  the  northern  shore  which  had  been 
July.  At  selected  for  the  council.  It  was  the  12th  of  July  when 
cataraqui.  Frouteuac  disembarked  his  followers  at  Cataraqui. 
It  was  done  with  a  pageantry  which  animated  with  delight  the 
assembled  Iroquois.  On  the  next  day,  July  13,  Raudiu,  the 
engineer,  was  set  to  work  in  laying  out  the  fort,  which  in  a 
few  days  was  ready  for  occupancy.  La  Salle,  who  had  mean< 
while  arrived,  was  put  in  command.  Frontenac,  who  knew  how 
to  gratify  the  Indian  pride,  made  everything  pleasant  for  the 
grand  council,  which  was  held  on  the  17th.  In  his  speech,  which 
formed  the  principal  feature  of  the  convocation,  the  governor 
said  everything  to  them  that  was  agreeable,  and  promised  them 
in  the  storehouse,  which  they  saw  in  progress,  the  opportunity 
of  getting  everything  they  wished.  He  did  not  forget  to  remind 
them  of  their  Great  Father's  power  to  punish  as  well  as  to  re- 
ward. When,  a  few  days  later,  the  parting  came,  and  the  Iro- 
quois started  to  cross  the  lake,  they  carried  with  them  the  con- 
ception of  a  white  man  quite  different  in  his  dealings  from  any 
they  had  hitherto  known.  Frontenac  had  vividly  impressed 
his  sturdy  and  emphatic  personality  upon  them,  and  it  did  much 
for  some  years  to  hold  t!".em  in  check. 

The  governor  was  back  in  Montreal  on  August  1,  and  he  had 
time  to  consider  whether  the  10,000  francs  which  his  display 
had  cost  —  a  draft  upon  a  treasury  far  from  full  —  was  to  pro- 
duce an  equivalent  return.  To  insure  what  he  hoped  for,  he 
had  formed  plans  of  still  another  fort  at  Niagara,  and  the  build- 
ing of  a  vessel  on  Lake  Erie.  He  had  written  to  this  effect  to 
the  king  in  November,  and  if  allowed  to  carry  out  his  plans,  he 
had  hopes  to  bar  the  Dutch  and  English  effectually  from  the 
waters  of  the  u]>per  lakes.  He  had  already  ordered  <^he  con- 
struction of  a  vessel  on  Ontario  to  be  used  as  an  auxiliary  force 
to  Fort  Frontenac,  as  the  post  at  Cataraqui  had  been 
named.  La  Salle,  at  the  same  time,  was  informing 
his  friends  (November  13)  that  they  would  not  be  disappointed 
in  his  efforts  to  carry  out  all  that  Frontenac  had  looked  for. 

It  was  not  long,  however,  before  Frontenac's  powers  of 
controlling  the  Iroquois  were  put  to  a  test.  The  Dutch  6u 
the  Hudson  were  thought  to  be  instigating  them  afresh.  Fron- 
tenac wrote  to  Colbert  that    only  his  flatteries  and  presents 


Fort 
Froutenac. 


it     '   1 


ili^ 


LA   SALLE'S  GRANT. 


253 


to  the  Indian  chiefs  could  keep  the  confederates  quiet.     The 
prospect  was  not  better  when,  in  February,  1674,  the  1074.  New 
treaty  of  Westminster  restored  New  York  to  the  Eng-  ISgUBh*"'" 
lish. 

Grosseilliers  and  Hadisson,  who,  as  we  have  seen,  had  been 
serving  the  English  at  Hudson's  Bay,  had  not  found  a  compli- 
ance with  the  rules  of  the  new  company  agreeable,  and  had 
returned  to  France  discontented,  and  quite  ready  to  reenter  the 
service  of  Colbert,  if  he  would  pay  their  debts  and  provide  for 
the  future.  Both  returned  to  Canada,  but  Frontenac  was  not 
in  a  temper  to  dally  with  renegades.  He  had  raised  Frontenac'a 
up  too  large  a  number  of  recalcitrants  among  the  6,700  «"«•"'««• 
inhabitants  which  Canada  now  showed,  to  open  careers  for 
others,  lie  had  leagued  the  whole  body  of  bushrangers  against 
him  by  his  endeavor  to  break  up  their  wild  and  independent 
systems  of  trade.  He  had  an  active  quarrel  with  Perrot,  the 
governor  of  Montreal,  who  was  their  avowed  abettor.  The 
Sulpitians  had  been  provoked  by  him,  and  thwarted  him  when 
they  could.  The  Jesuits,  if  their  accusers  may  be  believed,  did 
not  look  with  complacency  upon  any  system  of  organized  traffic 
which  shut  them  off  from  a  participation,  clandestine  it  may 
be,  in  the  profits  of  a  trade  which  their  missions  might  bring  to 
them.  But  Frontenac  got  some  relief  from  all  these  bickerings 
by  reverting  to  other  thoughts.  He  had  taken  Perrot  into  cus- 
tody, and  had  sent  him  to  France  for  the  king  to  de- 

.  .         .  .         1674.    La 

cide  upon  their  differences ;  but  he  had  sent  over  quite  Saiie  goes 
another  sort  of  man,  with  other  aims,  in  La  Salle,  who 
had  sailed  in  the  autumn  of  1674. 

It  is  said  that  La  Salle  had  been  pondering  of  late  on  Joliet's* 
reports,  and  had  made  up  his  mind  that  the  Mississippi  must 
find  an  outlet  in  the  Gulf  of  Mexico.     He  had  formed  this 
theory  not  without  some  ambition  to  prove  it  fact.     On  Novem- 
ber 14,  Frontenac  wrote  to  Colbert  that  La  Salle  was  a  man 
worth  his  listening  to,  and  so  the  king  heard  from  that  aspiring 
adventurer  a  proposition  that  Fort  Frontenac  and  the  adjacent 
lands  should  be  granted  to  him  as  a  seigneury.     On  ^nd  obtains 
his  part.  La  Salle  offered  to  reimburse  Frontenac  for  *  ^™'* 
the  outlay  already  made  on  the  fort,  and  to  maintain  a  garrison 
in  it.     In  recognition  of  the  service  which  he  proposed  to  ren- 


254 


CATARAQUI  AND  CRiiVECCEUR. 


-■I'  i.'i 


-:\    i 


m 


^hW^' 


hi 


der  to  New  France,  he  also  solicited  a  patent  of  nobility.  Col- 
bert acquiescing,  all  went  as  well  as  La  Salle  had  wished,  but 
it  became  necessary  that  he  should  agree  to  rebuild  the  fort  in 
masonry.  This  was  settled,  and  the  weight  of  debt  which  this 
undertaking  drew  upon  him  was  not  an  unimportant  factor  in 
later  obstructions. 

The  tide  of  emigration  towards  the  St.  Lawrence  was  already 
beginning  to  grow  slack,  and  Colbert  suspected  that  the  six 
months  in  which  the  river  was  icebound  had  something  to  do 
witli  it.  Accordingly,  he  had  alreatly  informed  Frontenac  how 
desirable  it  was  that  some  ingress  to  the  interior  of  the  conti- 
nent should  be  opened  in  a  warmer  region  than  Canada.  If 
such  intimation  gave  Frontenac  some  heart  for  further  explo- 
ration, the  king's  adjudication  in  the  dispute  between  him  and 
Perrot  was  not  equally  comforting.  This  tormentor  was  sent 
back  to  his  post  at  Montreal,  and  both  he  and  Frontenac  were 
given  some  sharp  reproof,  and  told  to  be  friends  for  the  future. 
They  equally  deserved  the  censure. 

In  September,  1675,  a  ship  arrived  in  Quebec,  bi-inging  four 
notable  persons.  The  conjunction  was  an  unhappy 
commingling  of  incompatible  natures.  One  was  La- 
val, returning  to  the  episcopate,  and  full  of  his  head- 
strong devotion  to  what  he  believed  to  be  his  duty,  — 
not  unused  or  disinclined  to  a  militant  churchmanship, 
which  Colbert  and  the  governor  must  soon  deal  with.  Another 
was  Duchesneau,  Talon's  successor  as  intendant,  and  a  stickler 
for  his  rights,  the  more  vigorous  when  these  rights  collided  witli 
what  Frontenac  conceived  to  be  his  own.  A  third  was  Louis 
Hennepin,  the  Recollect  friar,  a  man  to  be  played  off  against  the 
Jesuits  to  Frontenae's  content.  This  restless  priest  had  been 
smitten  with  travelers'  tales  from  his  early  youth.  He  had  re- 
cently been  an  army  chaplain,  but  was  now  eager  for  a  life  as 
hazardous  and  as  uncertain  as  he  could  make  it.  There  were  on 
the  same  ship  a  company  of  girls,  coming  to  seek  husbands  and 
homes.  They  grew  at  times  merry,  and  were  not  very  compla- 
cent when  the  priest,  to  prove  his  holy  vigilance,  sought  to  check 
tliem.  The  fourth  of  these  strange  companions  sided  with  the 
girls  against  the  Recollect's  austerity,  and  Hennepin  certainly,- 
in  telling  us  of  it,  does  not  expect  us  to  doubt  his  own  sincei'ity. 
This  defender  of  the  merry  damsels  was  tlie  austere  La  Salle 


1G75,  Sep- 
tember.  La- 
val, Dunhes- 
neaii,  Hen- 
nepin  and 
La  Salle  at 
Quebec. 


1  ; 
'  1 

ll 

II 

1 

1: 

LA  SALLE  AND  HENNEPIN. 


255 


himself.  Perhaps  the  buoyancy  of  his  hopes,  now  that  he  had 
(Tiiined  the  royal  recognition,  had  softened  his  temper,  and  he 
was  not  averse  to  making  the  bishop  and  the  Jesuits  hate  him 
more  than  ever,  since  he  knew  the  governor  to  be  his  friend. 

In  1676,  we  find  La  Salle  at  Fort  Frontenac,  deeply  engaged 
in  increasing  its  efficiency  as  a  trading-post.  He 
built  new  walls  to  the  fort,  planted  other  palisades,  sniieatFort 
brought  cattle  from  Montreal,  and  laid  the  keels  of 
the  vessels  which  he  depended  upon  to  frighten  the  English. 
Neither  he  nor  Frontenac  was  quite  clear  yet  as  to  what  they 
might  venture  to  undertake  to  the  westward.  The  king  was 
not  willing  to  weaken  the  older  settlements  by  sucli  western 
schemes,  and  he  did  not  hesitate  to  enjoin  upon  Frontenac  his 
duty  of  being  mindful  of  the  royal  v/ish.  Frontenac,  though 
he  had  been  warned  not  to  carry  on  any  trade  of  his  own,  was 
known  to  have  much  sympathy  with  La  Salle,  and  to  have  sent 
Raudin  to  Lake  Superior  with  presents  for  the  Sioux.  No  such 
transaction  could  escape  the  Jesuits,  and  what  the  Jesuits 
knew  they  shared  with  Duchesneau  and,  in  turn,  with  the  king. 
Frontenac,  on  the  othei  hand,  did  not  let  the  court  remain  in 
ignorance  of  the  service  that  La  Salle  was  doing.  This  faith- 
ful subject,  the  monarch  was  told,  had  spent  35,000  livres  on 
Fort  Frontenac,  and  was  gathering  settlers  about  its  walls.  The 
two  or  three  small  vessels  which  he  had  launched  on  the  lake 
were  bringing  im  in  something  like  25,000  livres  yearly  profit, 
as  many  believed. 

Hennepin  had  found  occupation  in  ministering  to  a  colony  of 
Iroquois,  who  had  come  across  the  lake  and  had  set  Hennepin 
up  their  huts  near  the  fort.     It  was  not  long  before  iro^uois,'* 
the  priest  felt  enough  at  ease  with  their  language  to  ^""^ 
make  a  winter  pilgrimage  over  the  lake  into  the  confederates' 
own  country  (1677).   He  found  them  not  altogether  dissatisfied 
with  the  neutrality  they  were  now  maintaining  with  both  French 
and  English.     They  had  recently  subdued  the  Andastes,  and 
there  was  no  neighboring   foe   to   fear.     Their  two  thousand 
warriors  were  recuperating.     Their   raids  as  far  south  as   the 
borders  of    Maryland  and  Virginia  had  harassed  the  whites 
equally  with  the  Indians  who  were  assailed,  as  such  incursions 
always  do.      Representatives  of  those    colonies  had    come   to 
Albany  to  induce  the  Iroquois  to  fetter  such  roving  bands  of 


m 


25C 


::. 


!}'■■'! 


:.  i 


W^r. 


I -if 


m^. 


r  :  i  ■  I 


111  !'•'!''■ '5'' 

mm 


:lfi    I 


I 


CATARAQUI  AND  CRkVEC(EUR. 


their  young  men ;  but  the  treaty  proved  little  more  than  one 
in  name.  La  Salle  was  perhaps  induced  to  believe  that  his 
conmiand  of  Lake  Ontario  and  this  wavering  of  the  Iroquois 
meant  a  stay  to  English  scheming,  but  he  counted  too  surely. 
There  is  some  reason  for  supposing  that  by  this  time  La  Salle 
had  come  to  expect  it  easy  to  open  a  channel  to  the  Mississippi 
LftRaiie'8  valley  by  the  Maumee  and  Wabash,  and  to  extend 
plan « of  his  trade  beyond  Niagara  in  that  direction.  To  ap- 
pease the  Iroquois  and  keep  them  quiet  was  particu- 
larly necessary  if  a  portage  so  accessible  to  the  confederates  as 
that  of  the  Maumee  should  be  made  a  channel  of  commerce. 
It  pi'oved  that  nearly  forty  years  were  yet  to  pass  before  the 
enmity  of  the  Iroquois  was  assuaged  enough  to  permit  that 
portage  to  be  used. 

With  such  dreams  floating  in  his  mind,  La  Salle  once  more, 
,„,   „       in  November,  10 7 7,  embarked  for  France.     His  pur- 

1C77.    Re-  •/.  1    nT  <• 

tiirns  to       pose  was  soon  manifest,  and  Margry  preserves  for  us 

France,  and     ^  .  ,  •    ,    ,        '      ,.        i  i  •        •  •  •    , 

memorializes  the  paper  m  which  he  outlined  his  aims  in  a  memorial 

the  king.  , 

to  the  king.  He  professed  in  it  that  his  work  at 
Fort  Frontenac  was  intended  to  form  a  base  for  a  western 
trade  that  should  extend  to  the  Mississippi,  —  and  he  seems  to 
have  believed  that  t)  is  river  flowed  into  what  at  this  time  stood 
for  Mobile  Bay  in  the  Spanish  maps,  —  where  buffalo,  wool,  and 
skins  would  make  the  staple  of  a  new  traffic.  These  peltries 
he  represented  as  being  so  exceptionally  heavy  that  it  would  be 
much  for  the  advantage  of  the  trade  if  he  could  be  allowed  to 
pursue  exploration  along  the  route  which  Joliet  had  opened,  and 
find  the  mouth  of  the  great  river.  That  being  done,  the  trans- 
porting of  this  heavy  traffic  could  be  carried  on  directly  by 
ships  from  the  Illinois  country.  To  this  end  he  asked  to  have 
his  seigneurial  tenure  of  Fort  Frontenac  confirmed,  and  to  be 
allowed  to  establish  other  posts  towards  the  south  and  west  for 
the  space  of  five  years.  On  May  12,  1678,  his  wishes 
were  complied  with  in  a  patent  signed  at  St.  Gei- 
main-en-Laye.  By  this  he  was  allowed  to  b,uild  forts 
in  the  coveted  country,  "  through  which,"  as  the  patent  ran,  "  it 
would  seem  that  a  passage  to  Mexico  can  be  found."  A  reser- 
vation was  imposed  in  that  he  was  forbidden  to  engage  in  trade 
with  such  tribes  as  would  naturally  carry  their  furs  to  Montreal. 
All  this  enterprise  was  to  be  carried  on  without  expense  to  the 


1678.    And 
gets  a 
patent 


LA   SALLE  AND   THE  JESUITS. 


257 


crown.     La  Salle  8eems  to  have  called  successfully  upon  his 
relatives  in  France  for  capital.     What  was  more  important  to 
liiui,  he  secured  the  fealty  of  a  remarkable  man.      This  was 
Ilunri  Tonty,  theson  of  an  Italian  refugee  domiciled  ^^^^j  ^ 
in  Paris,  whose  fame  is  associated  with  the  system  of  {"iji"  La 
Tontine  insurance.     No  man  ever  had  a  more  faith- 
ful servitor  than  Tonty  was  to  La  Salle,  and  it  is  one  of  the 
j)roofs  that  the  discoverer  of  the  mouth  of  the  Mississippi  had 
something  in  him  for  a  loyal  and  courageous  man  to  respect, 
that  Tonty  became  and  remained  his  fast  f I'iend.     For  La  Salh' 
had  not  learned  to  make  as  many  friends  as  a  man  of   his 
ambition  needed,  and  he  was  often  found  insupportably  harsh 
and  haughty.     This  want  of  tact,  fatal  in  great  enterprises, 
as  La  Salle  found  to  his  cost,  has  given  some  warrant  for  the 
opinion,  which,  for  instance.  Dr.  Shea  has  zealously  entertained, 
that  La  Salle  was  an  incapable  leader,  and  has  been  ^a  saiie's 
prodigiously  overrated  for  his  services.    Such  opinions  a^d'jesuit 
are,  it  must  be  confessed,  not  wholly  free  from  the  »""P**''y- 
prejudices  which  have  been  sent  down  to  us  by  Jesuit  antipa- 
thies.   La  Salle  on  his  part  was  no  lenient  judge  of  that  order, 
and  he  was  prone  to  find  ulterior  and  sinister  purposes  in  all 
they  did.     He  supposed  their  zeal  in  thwarting  him  in  his  pro- 
jects was  a  wish  to  bar  all  laymen  from  having  influence  among 
the  Indians,  and  to  establish  such  an  exclusive  system  in  New 
France  as  had  been  formed  l)y  them  in  Paraguay. 

It  was  in  August,  1678,  that  La  Salle  sailed  from  Rochelle. 
He  was  accompanied  by  Tonty,  and  they  took  with 
them  shipwrights  and   mechanics.     Their  shipments  gust.'  La 
included  anchors,  sails,  and  cordage  for  a  vessel  which  fov  Quebec, 
was  to  be  built  on  Lake  Erie.     They  reached  Que-  FortFioute- 
bec  in  September,  and  there  found  Hennepin  awaiting 
their  arrival.     The  priest  was  soon  sent  ahead  to  prepare  mat- 
ters at  Fort  Frontenac,  and  after  an  interview  with  the  gov- 
ernor La  Salle  followed.    During  this  interval,  it  was  arranged 
that  a  party  should  go  in  advance  to  trade  and  collect  food  in 
the  Illinois  country,  and  prepare  for  the  reception  of  La  Salle, 
who  might  be  expected  the  next  year.     La  Mothe  and  Hen- 
ne\nn  were  at  once  dispatched  in  a  small  vessel  to  Niagara  and 
Niagara,  and  a  fort  was  planned  at  the  mouth  of  that  *''^  Senecas. 
river.     It  was  soon  apparent   that  the  neighboring  Senecas 


ii 


1 


1   "' 

i:l 

j 

\l    ' 


268 


( *.  1 7".  I  n .1  (2 in  A  ND  cnk  vik  (E  ur. 


\h 


■:•(   '•' 


I  liiiililiiii: 


felt  uneasy  at  such  signs  «£  occupation.  Thoy  were  cany- 
ingon  a  lucrative  trade  as  iniiMlenien  between  the  more  distaiit 
tribes  ana  the  Knglish  at  Albany,  and  they  saw  in  the  movements 
of  the  French  an  attempt  to  prevent  such  commerce.  Theref(»i(> 
La  Mothe  and  his  <'ompanion  visited  the  nearest  Seneca  village 
to  make  explanations.  They  were  kindly  received,  and  an  In- 
dian prisoner  was  burned  for  their  enjoyment.  They  in  turn 
outlined  a  plan  of  opcnin}«'  communication  with  Europe  through 
the  greot  river,  so  that  goods  could  be  brought  with  less  ex- 
pense, and  could  be  sold  cheaper  than  it  was  possible  with  tJK! 
English.  Their  argument  availed  little,  and  the  Frenclnnen 
returned  to  camp  with  small  encouragement.      IVIeanwhile  Lu 

Salle  was  coasting  along  the  southern  shore  of  Ontario, 
nmoiiK  the     aud  OH  liis  Way  he  visited  the  same  village,  which  was, 

ni  tact,  the  identical  one  where  he  had  in  vain  souglit 
a  guide  ten  years  before.  He  was  more  successful  than  his 
precursors  had  been,  and  succeeded,  as  he  thought,  in  making  tlu^ 
tribe  content  with  his  ])rojects,  So  with  better  heart  ho  went 
on  to  Niagara  and  joined  La  Mothe,  whom  he  found  ciicamind 
near  the  Niagara  rapids.  La  Salle,  accompanied  by  Tonty, 
was  soon  on  his  way  to  discover  beyond  the  cataract  a  suitable 

spot  to  lav  tlu!  keel  of  his  intended  vessel.     There  lias 

SpleotH  n 

Biiipviiici  on    been  some  diversity  of  opinion  as  to  the  precise  sijot 

tlie  Niagara.         i.ii  i  i     ^  ,  'i-iiii  • 

which  he  selected,  but  there  is  little  doubt  that  it  was 
just  within  or  possibly  on  one  side  of  the  mouth  of  Cayuga 
Creek,  where  an  island  lying  off  the  shore  diverts  part  of  the 
current  towards  the  easterly  bank  of  the  river.  Mr.  O.  II. 
iMarshall  of  Buffalo,  whose  name  is  connected  with  many  care- 
ful studies  of  the  history  of  the  Niagara  region,  first  jjointed  out 
(1845)  this  spot  as  answering  best  the  conditions  of  the  con- 
temporary narratives.  Schoolcraft  gave  Mr.  Marshall's  views 
currency  two  years  later,  and  they  are  now  generally  accepted. 
Though  there  is  some  disagreement  as  to  the  i)recise  spot,  theie 
is  none  as  to  the  general  location. 

It  had  already  been  found  that  the  portage  around  the  cata- 
ract was  not  so  favorable  on  the  western  side,  and  in 
"i(;7i>.    Plana  the  latter  part  of  January,  1679,  the  party  began  to 

for  building  ^  11  ^      \   ^  ^       e  ti 

tiie"Grif-     carry  the  material  which  they  had  brought  from  lort 

Frontenac  u})  the  steep  which  leads  to  the  plateau  of 

the  Niagara  gorge,  and  to  bear  it  along  the  portage  track  for 


nuFiwnoKs. 


259 


ill' 


li 


I  s 


! 


51  ■  f 


1^      ' 


¥'■'' 

':    : 

260 


CATARAQUI  AND  CRkVEC(EUR. 


La  Snile  nt 
Fort  Fron- 
teiiac. 


twelve  miles.  It  was  not  all  the  material  they  had  hoped  to 
have,  for  after  La  Salle  had  left  his  vessel  on  the  lake  to  make 
by  land  the  latter  part  of  his  way  to  La  Mothe's  camp,  the  craft 
encountered  bad  weather  and  was  wrecked.  Fortunately,  they 
saved  the  anchors  and  cables  intended  for  the  new  vessel,  and 
it  was  under  the  burden  of  these,  with  some  rejoicing  over  their 
good  fortune  in  saving  so  much,  that  the  party  now  struggled 
along  the  portage  of  the  falls.  The  new  vessel  was  planned  to 
be  about  fifty  tons  burden,  as  we  should  now  reckon,  and  the 
keel  being  laid.  La  Salle  himself  drove  the  first  bolt.  Putting 
the  charge  of  the  construction  upon  Tonty,  La  Salle  returned 
to  the  mouth  of  the  river,  where  he  began  the  construction 
of  a  block-house.  This  well  started,  he  undertook  with  a  few 
companions  to  find  his  way  back  to  Fort  Frontenac  by  land 
through  the  Iroquois  country.  He  had  to  cross  the 
eastern  end  of  the  lake  on  the  ice,  and  reached  his 
destination  exhausted  and  famished.  He  was  in  poor 
condition  to  encounter  the  aggravated 
attacks  which  his  creditors  were  makin<^- 
upon  his  character,  and  to  a^oid  tlio 
embarrassments  with  which  his  enemies 
sought  to  entangle  his  projects.  It  has 
been  said  that  La  Salle's  creditors  had 
already  seized  his  property,  but  Kings- 
ford,  the  latest  Canadian  investigator, 
can  find  no  evidence  of  actual  seizure. 

While  La  Salle  was  gone,  Tonty  pushed 
the  shij)  well  on  toward  completion, 
but  with  constant  apprehension  that  the 
Seneeas  might  burn  her  on  the  stocks. 
These  Indians  hardly  concealed  their 
hostility,  and  could  not  be  induced  to 
sup})ly  the  camp  with  food,  so  that  two 
Mohegan  Indians  whom  the  French  hid 
witli  them  were  kept  out  to  hunt  for 
game.  By  May  the  vessel  was  ready 
to  launch.  Once  afloat,  she  was  towed 
[The  "Grition"  was  built  near  tiie  jnto  the  strcam  and  aucliored.     It  Avas 

mouth  of  Cayuga  Creek.]  .in.  .    i  I'll  1111 

the  first  moment  her  builders  had  had 
when  they  felt  secure  from  possible  mis  hief  on  the  part  of  the 


NIAGARA  RIVER. 


^■■ 


NIAGARA   FALLS. 


261 


Indians.    The  savages  could  now  prowl  about  and  look  on  with 
wonder   without   exciting   apprehension.      Frontenac  16-9,  May. 
bore  as  supporters  to  his  arms  two  griffins,  and  the  Jon'"^^[' 
workmen  had  carved  the  figure  of  one  and  placed  it  ^^^^^' 
at  the  prow.     They  had  given,  indeed,  to  the  ship  the  corre- 
sponding name  of  "  Griffon."     She  was  pierced  for  five  guns, 
and  the  little  pieces  grinned  ominously  from  their  ports. 

The  fitting  and  rigging  of  the  vessel  went  on,  and  when  it 
was  nearly  complete  Tonty  started  ahead  (July  22)  j„,    ^ont 
with  a  small  party  to  the  outlet  of  the  Detroit  River,  ^oes  ai.ead. 


I  ,«i  i  I 


t: 


tn  '■* 


1 1 


n\ 


HENNEPIN'S  VIEW   OF  NIAGARA   FALLS. 

[From  the  Noiaelle  llecouverle,  Utrecht,  1097.     The  cut  iti  this  edition  shows  the  "  Gritfou  " 

on  Lake  Erie.] 

A  few  days  later,  La  Salle  arrived  from  Fort  Frontenac,  where 
he  had  made  the  best  arrangement  of  his  affairs  which  was  pos- 
.sible,  and  brought  with  him  the  priest  Menibr^,  whose  journal 
is  to  help  our  narrative  henceforward. 

Early  in  August,  the  "  Griffon  "  was  made  ready  for  a  stai't, 
and  amid   a   discliarge  of  guns,  and  with  the  crew 
c'liantin"'  the   Te  Diu.n.,  she  was  towed  against  the  "onuou" 

*^  .  sails. 

current  till  she  could  bear  away  with  spread  canvas 


I  i 


I  ::' 


. 


SI 

!   Hi 

•PL 


5l  .''   Ill 


11   lillMlV 


"  I'jil 


m^ 


mm 


i?'  'ilijllillS 


:!;j!i.hr|:'< 


262 


CATARAQUl  AND   CRkVEC(EUR. 


At  St. 
IgnacBc 


upon  the  waters  of  Lake  Erie.  Three  days  later  (August  10), 
La  Salle  saw  the  three  columns  of  smoke  which  Tonty  gave  as 
a  signal  at  the  Detroit  River,  and  took  his  staunch  friend  ami 
companions  on  board.  Passing  up  the  straits,  with  green  sloi)es 
and  verdant  groves  on  either  hand,  they  crossed  on  Ste.  Clare's 
day  the  expansion  of  the  stream  which  now  bears  a  similar  but 
perverted  name  (Lake  St.  Clair),  and  on  the  23d  the  "  Griffon  " 
On  Lake  was  boundiug  over  the  waves  of  Lake  Huron.  Tlie 
Huron.  wiud  was  rapidly  freshening,  and  the  flying  vapors 
drove  in  upon  her  course.  It  grew  to  a  gale,  and  the  green 
timbers  of  the  ship  creaked  ominously.  Vows  were  made  to 
St.  Anthony  of  Padua,  and  as  the  seas  broke  over  them  hope 
was  nearly  abandoned.  The  crazy  ship,  however,  rode  out  tlie 
storm,  and  on  the  27th  she  rounded  to  under  the  point 
of  St.  Ignace,  and  dropped  anchor  in  its  quiet  shelter. 
Here  the  strange  community  gathered  within  the  palisades  of  the 
Jesuit's  house,  and  scattered  through  the  startled  Indian  village, 
poured  out  upon  the  strand.  Presently  a  hundred  canoes  weie 
hovering  about  the  weird  and  appalling  "  Griffon."  La  Salle, 
robed  in  scarlet  and  gold,  landed  with  his  companions,  and 
heard  mass  in  the  bark  chapel  of  the  mission.  This  over,  lie 
lingered  long  enough  among  the  huts  of  the  village  to  discover 
that  mischief  was  brewing.  Some  of  the  party  which  he  had 
sent  forward,  as  we  have  seen,  to  trade  among  the  Illinois,  had 
preferred  to  linger  hereabouts,  and  were  scattered  among  the 
bushrangers,  who  were  loitering  away  their  time  in  the  indul- 
gences of  this  frontier  life.  These  faithless  pioneers  had  im- 
bibed something  of  the  distrust  and  enmity  which  existed  in 
this  wild  community  against  any  organized  method  of  tiiide, 
and  were  plotting  sedition  against  their  leader.  La  Salle 
caused  the  arrest  of  a  few,  and  sent  a  party  to  the  Sault  to 
seize  some  who  had  wandered  thither.  Such  peremptory  de- 
mands on  La  Salle's  part  might  stifle,  but  they  did  not  eradi- 
cate, the  poisonous  opposition  which  his  presence  created. 

Arranging  for  the  coming  back  of  the  "  Griffon  "  from  Green 
Bay  to  Mackinac,  whence  she  was  to  return  to  Niagara  with 
such  furs  as  could  be  gathered,  to  satisfy  the  demands  of  his 
creditors,  La  Salle  set  sail  once  more  on  her  for  his  destination. 
At  Green  Bay,  he  found  other  of  his  men,  and  they  had  secnicd 
a  welcome  store  of   peltries.     He  seemed  to  forget  that  the 


,;!'•;,;  I  :|:"^i 


THE  "GRIFFON." 


2G3 


shipment  of  them  would  expose  him  to  the  charge  of  having 
traffic  with  the  Ottawas,  whoso  trade  his  commission  warned 
him  not  to  divert  from  Montreal.  Hennepin  tells  us  that  in 
determining  to  send  the  "  Griffon  "  back  with  these  furs,  La 
Salle  did  not  deign  to  consult  with  any  one.  The  act  was  sure  to 
turn  against  him  any  traders  at  Mackinac  who  were  not  already 
estranged.  But  La  Salle  never  looked  far  ahead  for  the  effects 
of  any  indiscretion. 

On  September  18,  La  Salle  saw  the  *'  Griffon,"  thus  laden 
with  an  ill-gotten  booty,  sail  out  of  Green  Bay  on  her  , ,_  ^ 

>T«  mi  •!  l'>i  J,  Sept. 

way  to  Mackinac  and  Niagara.     There  were  a  pilot,  a  iS;,  .'ri'« 

./  '^  11^1         "Gntioii" 

business  affent,  and  five  other  men  on  board.     She  saiisfrom 

,  Oreeu  Bay. 

directed  her  course  to  the  northeast,  and  was  seen  no 
more.  La  Salle's  mind  was  soon  made  uneasy  when  a  gale 
arose  and  swept  along  the  course  of  the  shij).  The  people  at 
St.  Ignace  felt  it,  and  fearetl  the  little  vessel  m  ght  be  buffeting 
its  violence.  The  storm  passtMl,  and  while  the  sun  shone,  priest 
and  trader  at  Mackinac  began  to  peer  up  the  straits  for  the 
white  sail  that  was  never  to  come. 

In  all  probability  the  "  Griffon  "  foundered  in  the  gale,  and 
no  one  survived  to  tell  the  tale.  There  were  stories  of  foul  play, 
of  Indians  boarding  her  and  nuirdering  the  crew,  and  of  a  faith- 
less i)ilot,  who  ran  her  ashore  and  endeavored  to  escape  with 
Ills  plunder,  but  only  to  be  stricken  down  by  the  si» ,  ages,  — 
but  there  is  no  evidence  to  substantiate  any  of  them.  La  SaJle 
indeed,  at  a  later  day,  by  talking  with  a  Pana  Indian,  whom  l»d 
represents  as  coming  from  a  region  two  hundred  leagues  west  "> 
the  Mississippi,  was  satisfied  that  the  youth  had  seen  the  pilot 
of  the  "  Griffon,"  whom  hi^  people  had  captured  while  ho  v.as 
on  the  ^lississippi,  endeavoring  to  reach  Duluth  in  the  Sioux 
country.  La  Salle  was  led  to  believe  that  if  the  renegacU*  uiissed 
Duluth  he  was  intending  to  go  to  the  Knglish  at  Hudson's  Bay. 
La  Salle  was  confident  also  that  to  reach  the  sjwt  where  he  was 
captured,  he  must  have  passed  near  the  Jesuit  stations  on  Green 
Bay,  and  its  priests  were  accimlingly  not  so  ignorant  of  the  fate 
of  the  vessel  as  they  i)retended. 

The  ill-fated  ship  out  of  sight,  T^a  Salle  was  soon  on  his  way 
up  Lake  ^Michigan  toward  the  southern  nortages.  He  sent 
Tonty  and  a  party  across  the  lake,  with  instructions  to  follow 
up  the  eastern  shore  of  Michigan,  ami  to  join  his  leader  at  St. 
Joseph. 


:f 


i   i 

I    i 
i    . 


ill 


iW 


!         i  |l 


1 


■Siil^iif.S 


■  ■ .   a     ■ .-  ^ 


264 


CATARAQUI  AND   CREVEC(EUR. 


La  Salle  himself  led  a  party  of  fourteen  in  four  canoes,  by 
the  western  shore.  The  way  proved  perilous.  His  canoes  were 
too  deeply  laden  with  forges  and  tools  to  buffet  easily  the  gales 
they  encountered,  and  their  food  gave  out.  Unless  the  shore 
Indians  had  supplied  them  with  corn  they  would  have  perished, 
and  there  was  a  village  of  Maskoutens  and  Outagamies  at  the 
river  Melleoki  (Milwaukee)  which  proved  hospitable.  They 
were  glad  at  one  point  to  feast  on  the  carcass  of  a  deer  whicli 
they  rescued  from  the  crows.  Their  Mohegans  hunted  to  keep 
them  in  food,  as  they  had  done  at  Niagara.  They  discovered 
some  wild  grapes,  —  an  unexpected  feast.  They  found  some- 
times that  their  camp  was  robbed  by  lurking  savages  while  they 
slept.  Occasionally,  a  band  of  native  vagabonds  would  manifest 
a  hostile  air.  Once  they  thought  they  must  fight  for  their  lives, 
confronted  by  eight  or  ten  times  their  own  number  of  capering 
savages ;  but  the  danger  passed.  When  the  assailants  came  to 
a  parley.  La  Salle  was  advised  that  he  would  find  implacable 
foes  in  the  Illinois  if  he  went  on,  for  they  had  been  taught  to 
believe  by  the  traders,  who  were  already  warning  them  against 
La  Salle,  that  the  raids  which  the  Iroquois  had  made  into  the 
Illinois  country  had  been  instigated  by  the  French. 

It  was  November  1,  1679,  when  La  Salle  reached  the  St. 
iG79,Nov.i.  Joseph  River.  He  was  some  time  ahead  of  Tonty,  and 
ttSe^st!  j^*  he  employed  the  interval  in  building  a  timber  fort.  It 
seph  River.  ^^^  nearly  three  weeks  before  his  lieutenant  appeared 
with  only  half  his  party,  for  the  difficulties  of  feeding  them  all 
along  one  route  had  compelled  him  to  divide  his  followers,  and 
the  two  sections  had  taken  different  ways.  Tonty  brought  no 
tidings  of  the  "  Griffon,"  as  La  Salle  had  hoped  he  would  ;  and 
so  two  men  were  dispatched  to  Mackinac,  to  be  there  wlieu  slu; 
returned  from  Niagara,  and  guide  her  to  the  St.  Joseph,  whoro 
four  men  were  left  in  the  fort. 

On  December  3,  La  Salle,  with  eight  canoes  and  thirty-three 
men,  started  up  the  St.  .Joseph  River.  There  was 
nothing  to  cheer  them  in  the  stretch  of  dreary  fields 
and  bare  woods  which  lined  the  river's  channel.  His  anxiety 
about  the  "  Griffon "  weighed  him  down  throughout  these 
seventy  sad  milcp.  For  a  while  he  despaired  of  finding  the 
portage.  At  last  it  was  discovered,  and  there  was  a  severe 
haul  over  five  miles  of  stiffened  ooze.     When  they  once  more 


December  3. 


.   I' 


■5.    l.i. 


ililliil::! 


LA   SALLE   ON  THE  ILLINOIS. 


265 


launched  their  canoes  on  the  Kankakee,  they  slipped  along  with 
the  welcome  current  through  open  prairies,  which  were  the 
range  of  the  buffalo.  At  last  they  shot  out  upon  the  Illinois. 
They  came  to  a  large  village  of  the  Ottawas,  but  the  huts  were 
empty,  for  it  was  the  period  of  the  winter  hunt.  They  searched 
the  spot  till  they  found  a  store  of  buried  corn,  and  took  in  their 
need  fifty  bushels  of  it.  They  had  passed  under  the  ribbed 
precipice  of  what  was  later  known  as  Starved  Rock,  not  yet 
suggestive  of  future  trials.  Around  them  lay  the  broad  plains 
of  the  Illinois,  stretching  between  its  bordering  ridges. 

On  January  1,  1680,  they  landed,  and  celebrated  the  feast  of 
the  Circumcision.  On  the  5th,  they  darted  into  the  icgo  janu- 
expansion  of  water  now  known  as  Peoria  Lake.  As  '""y* 
they  approached  its  lower  end  they  discovered  some  thin  films 
of  smoke  writhing  above  the  woods,  and,  doubling  a  point  in  the 
contracted  stream,  an  Indian  village  was  before  them.  La  Salle 
slackened  his  speed  enough  to  draw  out  his  little  flotilla  in  line 
across  the  river,  and  floated  on  amid  the  shouts  and  cries  of  the 
disturbed  savages.  The  aspect  for  a  while  was  threatening,  but 
La  Salle  boldly  landed  as  if  for  conference,  and  the  chiefs  ad- 
vanced with  calumets.  The  peaceful  pipe  removed  distrust,  and 
tobacco  and  hatchets  were  soon  exchanged  for  hospitality,  while 
the  rubbing  of  the  Frenchmen's  feet  with  unguents  mavked  the 
savage  civilities.  The  taking  of  corn  from  their  village  garners 
was  explained  and  payment  offered.  With  faltering  interpre- 
tation the  visitors  tried  to  make  c\  ident  that  they  had  come  to 
do  their  hosts  a  service.  They  promised  to  open  ti  route  by 
which  to  bring  them  the  a.'ticles  of  Eui'opean  traffic,  which  were 
so  acceptable.  If  the_y  would  generously  allow  the  French  to 
build  a  fort  among  them,  such  trade  and  reciprocity  would  be 
increased.  The  tribe,  s^aid  the  visitors,  could  not  wisely  deny 
such  a  privilege,  for  it  would  only  force  their  guests  to  pass  on 
to  other  more  hospitable  people.  Such  were,  a^  Hennepin  tells 
us,  the  persuasions  the  Fi-enchmen  offered. 

But  the  golden  offers  were  not  doing  all  that  La  Salle  ex- 
pected, and  he  thought  he  saw  that  the  demeanor  of  the  savages 
was  growing  more  and  more  uneas3\  He  began  to  suspect  that 
some  of  the  disappointed  and  vagrant  Mackinac  traders  who 
were  determined  to  thwart  his  purposes  had  their  Indian  tuiis- 
saries  in  the  dusky  throngs  which  surrounded  him.     Hennepin 


■  / 

■f 


:ij 


I 


266 


CATARAQUI  AND   CRilVECCEUR. 


fi 

m 

[■\v'^i 

1 

ff^B 

■  '  '  '  '.j  j 

w'  •■ 

:  'V^'if'i 

W.  ■ '' ' 

'  "v 

1' 

,     4  ;^B 

f- 

tr 

U}.- 

;     > 

charges  AUouez,  the  Jesuit  priest  who  succeeded  Marquette  in 
the  Illinois  mission,  and  who  had  been  a  good  deal  among  these 
people  for  the  last  two  or  three  years,  with  having  instigated 
these  distrusts,  and  La  Salle  later  professed  himself  confident  of 
Allouez's  intrigues.  At  all  events,  it  was  apparent  that  some 
evil  purpose  had  possessed  the  savages,  and  was  extending  even 
among  La  Salle's  own  followers.  Two  of  his  best  carpenters, 
upon  whom  he  was  depending  for  future  work,  deserted  him 
at  this  juncture,  and  others  less  valuable  had  slunk  away.  It 
is  even  affirmed  that  some  tried  to  poison  their  leader,  but 
a  good  deal  of  caution  must  be  exercised  in  interpreting  the 
morose  foiebodings  of  La  Salle.  A  certain  rigorous  silence 
which  soiDi  imes  came  over  him  was  associated  in  the  minds  ff 
the  mistiust  111  savages  with  what  they  imagined  to  be  soiue 
pnrpo.  :  to  favor  the  Iroquois,  and  no  thought  could  be  more 
disqt.ieli ir  a  lung  them. 

It  was  a  -itt  such  mutterings  that  La  Salle  resolved  upon 
boldly  pi  f  iiu'  a  fortified  post  among  these  lowering  sava2;e% 
He  selected  *  spot  on  a  knoll  on  the  eastern  bank  of  the  river. 
This  little  elevation  was  flanked  by  ravines  and  marshes,  and 
they  easily  dug  a  ditch  to  complete  the  circuit  of  defense. 
Within  this  they  threw  up  earthworks,  protected  by 
builds  Fort    palisadcs.     La  Salle  named  his   fort   Crevecoeur, — 

Crevecoeur,     *  , 

broken  heart !  It  has  been  commonly  said  that  this 
name  was  given  in  recognition  of  cruel  mishaps,  which  perplexed 
him,  and  none  of  which  was  more  disheartening  than  the  dis- 
appearance of  the  "  Grififon,"  for  his  followers,  left  at  St.  Jo- 
seph, had  never  been  able  to  send  him  the  grateful  tidings  of 
her  appearance. 

It  may  well  be  doubted  if  any  but  a  foolish  leader  could 
have  so  clearly  empliasized  his  misfortunes,  when  his  querulous 
adherents  needed  so  much  to  be  in-  pi-itetl.  Shea  is  accordingly 
forced  to  believe  that  the  name  was  chosen  rather  in  reminis- 
cence of  the  Fort  Crcvecffiur  in  the  Netherlands  which  had  been 
captured  by  Louis  XIV.  a  few  years  before  (1072). 

The  fort  well  planned,  La  Salle  laid  the  keel  of  a  small  vos- 
sel  of  forty  tons,  —  she  was  to  be  forty-two  feet  lonjr 

OIK]  bpftiiis  '■  T1C1  I'l 

work  on  a      with  twclvc  fcct  brcadth  of   beam, — which  was  to 

serve  with  her  high  rails  as  a  floating  breastwork  in 

his  intended  voyage  to  the  mouth  of  the  Mississippi.     Though 


ACCAULT  AND  HENNEPIN. 


267 


he  was  embarrassed  by  the  defection  of  some  of  his  carpenters, 
the  work  went  bravely  on.  lie  kept  his  party  as  closely  within 
his  fort  as  the  work  permitted,  for  he  could  hardly  feel  that  his 
position  was  a  safe  one.  Membre,  however,  lived  among  the 
Indians,  ministering  his  holy  calling,  and  we  owe  to  his  journal 
some  part  of  our  knowledge  of  these  precarious  days.  The 
story  which  Sagean  told  after  La  Salle's  death  of  his  partici- 
pation in  this  expedition  has  little  or  no  claims  for  belief.  The 
Indians  had  not  ceased  to  picture  the  horro"s  of  the  lower 
Mississippi,  in  their  efforts  to  dissuade  the  French  from  going 
farther  down ;  but  the  construction  of  the  ship  showed  that 
their  intimidations  were  useless.  La  Salle  soon  had  the  oppor- 
tunity to  impress  them  with  something  like  a  miraculous  pres- 
cience. He  chanced  to  intercept  a  young  Illinois,  bound  to  the 
village,  but  yet  some  distance  afield.  From  him  he  gleaned  a 
sufficiently  accurate  account  of  the  leading  landmarks  in  the 
great  river's  southern  course.  With  this  knowledge  La  Salle 
sought  an  interview  with  the  chiefs,  and  told  them  what  he  ex- 
pected to  find.  His  descriptions  so  closely  corresponded  with 
what  they  knew,  rather  than  what  they  represented,  that  they 
were  embarrassed,  and  acknowledged  they  had  had  the  purpose 
to  deceive  him.  This  moral  victory  served  to  make  matters  more 
promising,  and  La  Salle  determined  to  return  to  his  manor  at 
Cataraqui,  and  secure  equipments  for  his  ship.  But  one  thing 
was  yet  to  be  done  before  leaving,  and  that  was  to  dispatch  a 
party  to  explore  the  upper  waters  of  the  Mississippi,  as  comple- 
menting his  own  project  of  exploring  the  lower  parts  to  j^so,  Feb- 
the  sea.  To  this  end  one  Ac  jault  was  put  in  command  !!auH  and  ° 
of  a  party,  and  Hennepin  was  detailed  to  accompany  J^nt't^the 
him.  On  the  last  day  of  February,  1080,  La  Salle  ^i'^^^^Tp'- 
saw  tlie  little  expedition  start  on  its  way.  A  recital  of  its  ad- 
ventures must  be  reserved  for  another  chapter.  We  must  also 
Tiit  for  the  present  to  follow  La  Salic  himself,  when  a  few 
ilay.  later,  biddi  ig  Tonty  good-by,  and  investing  him  with  the 
command,  he  also  left  for  his  visit  to  the  distant  settlements. 
It  is  only  necessary  now  to  record  that  he  had  not  gone  far 
when  his  eye  measured  the  natural  stre  .g  h  of  the  eminence 
now  called  Starved  Rock,  and  making  an  examination  of  it,  he 
determined  it  was  a  better  post  than  Crcvecceur,  if  a  siege  was 
to  be  withstood.  Accordingly,  later  in  his  progress,  he  sent 
back  instructions  to  Tonty  to  occupy  it. 


(ir 


H 


■;-! 


i4t 


\iyJ 


mm 


iiiiii.|: 


268 


CATARAQUI  AND  CRkVEC(EUR. 


These  messengers  delivered  La  Salle's  instructions ;  but  that 
was  not  all.  They  aroused  the  lurking  spirit  of  sedition  which 
La  Salle  thought  he  had  quieted.  They  told  stories  of  the 
financial  ruin  which  had  overtaken  their  leader's  affairs  in 
Montreal,  and  of  his  consequent  inability  to  succor  them.  The 
pay  of  La  Salle's  men  was  long  in  arrears,  and  there  seemed  no 
hope.  Tonty,  very  likely  not  aware  of  the  feelings  of 
Starved  rcvolt  wliich  tliesc  stories  were  creating,  did  not  delay 
to  carry  out  La  Salle's  commands  about  the  Rock,  and 
left  with  a  few  men  to  visit  the  spot  and  begin  his  occupation 
of  the  heights.  He  was  no  sooner  gone  than  the  smothered  pas- 
sions broke  into  fury,  and  the  fort  was  gutted  and  abandoned. 

Word  of  all  this  soon  reached  Tonty  at  the  Rock,  and  he  dis- 
patched two  small  parties  by  different  routes  to  carry  intelli- 
gence to  La  Salle  of  the  ill  luck  which  had  befallen  Crevecceur. 
One  of  the  parties,  as  we  shall  see,  reached  its  destination.  The 
sending  of  these  messengers  depleted  Tonty's  force  so  much 
that  he  was  left  with  only  three  com]>anions  beside  the  two 
friars,  to  meet  what  seemed  an  inevitable  fate.  The^e  was  no- 
thing for  the  solitary  Frenchmen  to  do  but  to  mingle  confidently 
with  the  Indian  community  which  surrounded  the  Rock,  and 
disarm  enmity  by  a  seeming  trustfulness.  In  these  straits,  and 
with  recnrring  apprehensions,  the  spring  and  summer  passed. 

Early  in  September,  a  Shawnee  straggler  came  into  the  vil- 
1C80,  Sep-  l^g®  ^"f^  reported  a  war  party  of  Iroquois  and  Miamis 
irouuou  ^"*  ^^^*  °^-  ^^^^  community  was  exasperated  at  the 
attack.  sudden  danger.  It  was  thought  that  this  new  attack 
of  the  dreaded  confederates  was  set  on  by  the  French,  and 
some  scouts  who  had  been  out  to  watch  the  enemy's  advance 
reported  that  they  had  seen  La  Salle  and  a  blf  ck-robe  among 
the  approaching  foe.  The  truth  was  that  some  leader  among 
them  was  arrayed  in  Euro])ean  clothes,  and  the  real  secret  of 
their  renewed  hostility  was  to  brtsak  uj)  the  French  })lans  of 
establishing  traffic  in  the  great  valley.  If  there  was  any  spu* 
ui)on  their  movements,  it  was  applied  by  the  English  at  Albany, 
wlio  looked  to  the  Iroquois  as  middlemen  in  keeping  up  their 
peltry  trade  with  these  western  tribes.  The  Miamis  had  an  old 
grudge  against  the  Illinois,  and  the  confederates  had  readily 
enticed  them  into  joining  in  the  raid. 

Tonty  thus  found  himself  unexpectedly  put  to  a  test  both  of 


rONTY'S  ESCAPE. 


209 


his  audacity  and  tact.  His  apparent  e;  ijerness  to  join  in  the 
frny  at  last  dispelled  the  suspicions  of  his  Indian  allies.  The 
Illinois  hurriedly  embarked  their  women  and  children  for  an 
island  retreat  down  the  river,  and  gave  the  night  to  making 
ready  for  the  morrow's  fight. 

With  the  day  the  Illinois  advanced  to  meet  the  attack,  and 
in  the  midst  of  the  confusion  Tonty  stepped  to  the  front,  hold- 
ing a  wampum  belt  as  an  invitation  to  parley.  On  his  being 
recognized  as  a  Frenchman,  the  conflict  was  partially  stilled 
about  him,  but  it  was  not  checked  enough  even  then  to  save 
Tonty  from  a  wound  in  the  surging  of  the  combatants.  He 
succeeded  at  last  in  warning  the  enemy  that  in  attacking  the 
Illinois  they  were  warring  upon  the  French,  of  whom  there  was 
a  force  of  sixty,  as  he  professed,  not  far  off,  ready  to  avenge 
any  disaster.  This  effrontery  gained  time,  and  the  Illinois, 
suspecting  the  confederates'  hesitancy  to  be  only  a  disguise  for 
something  worse,  set  fire  to  their  town  and  joined  their  wo- 
men down  the  stream.  The  Iroquois  immediately  swarmed  over 
the  ground,  and  began  to  devastate  what  the  fire  had  spared. 
Tonty 's  position  was  growing  more  critical.  It  was  evident 
tliat  nothing  but  a  policy  of  peace  with  Frontenac,  which  the 
Iroquois  were  practicing,  saved  these  appalled  Frenchmen  from 
the  old  fury  of  their  former  foes.  Tonty  soon  yielded  Tonty 
to  the  Iroquois  advice,  and  saw  that  he  must  leave  the  ^^'^"p**- 
Illinois  to  their  fate.  He  embarked  in  canoes  with  his  com- 
j)iinions,  and  paddled  upstream  out  of  sight  and  earshot  of  the 
hideous  revelries. 

Tonty  gone,  there  was  no  restraint  upon  the  furious  Iroquois, 
and  they  started  down  the  river  in  pursuit  of  the  flying  Illinois. 
The  savage  demons  fell  upon  their  victims  wherever  they  could 
couie  up  with  them,  and  left  the  revolting  traces  of  their  fiendish 
fury  all  along  their  track. 

Tonty,  the  day  after  his  escape,  stopped  to  repair  his  canoe, 
when  Father  Kibourde,  wandering  off  from  the  party,  was  mur- 
dered by  a  marauding  band  of  Kickapoos.  There  were  four 
Frenchmen  now  left  beside  their  leader,  and  they  pushed  on, 
buoyed  by  a  hope  which  promised  little.  They  suffered  hard- 
ships that  thei'e  was  no  chance  of  escaping.  They  passed  the 
Chicago  portage  and  followed  down  the  western  shores  of 
Michigan,  little  suspecting  that  La  Salle  was  at  the  same  time 


ii 


Sir 


III 


Ii 


'lit 


i  r 


!  H: 


'i-S 


■i  ■ 


-n 


1.4 


}: 
i 


i'i 


270 


CATAHAQUI  AND   CRkVKCOiUR. 


following  up  the  opposite  shore  to  succor  them.  It  was  now 
Nov ,  uec,  November,  and  early  in  December  Tonty  met  a  i)arty 
1080.  q£  Ottawas,  who  took  them  in  their  canoes.    Famisheil, 

and  weakened  almost  to  exhaustion,  they  found  at  last  hospita- 
ble entertainment  in  a  Pottawattamie  village.  Tonty  was  too  ill 
to  go  farther,  and  there  happened  to  be  some  Frenchmen  in  the 
village  to  nurse  him.  M  'uibrd  was  left  to  proceed  alone  to  Green 
Bay  and  report  the  horrible  details  of  these  tragic  experiences. 


'  f 


March,  1C80 
La  Salle's 
movemeuti. 


f     t 


We  may  turn  nov/  to  follow  La  Salle  aftc^r  he  had  parted  with 
Tonty.  It  was  in  March,  1680,  when,  accompanied  by 
his  faithful  Mohegan  hunter  and  four  Frenchmen, 
La  Salle's  two  canoes  glided  gut  into  the  icy  stream 
and  began  to  ascend  the  Illinois.  It  was  dreary  weather,  and 
nothing  but  severe  hardship  could  be  in  store  for  them  ;  but  it 
was  necessary  to  undergo  everything  if  he  was  to  launch  his 
new  vessel  at  Crdvecoeur  the  next  season,  since  the  anchors  and 
other  equipments  must  be  brought  from  the  St.  Lawrence. 
They  found  in  some  places  the  ice  in  the  river  too  thick  to 
break,  and  were  obliged  to  sledge  their  canoes.  The  snow  lay 
deep  enough  to  embank  the  buffalo,  and  they  got  some  meat  by 
killing  the  struggling  creatures.  Towards  the  end  of  March 
they  reached  the  fort  on  che  St.  Joseph.  Here  they  found 
some  of  the  men  who  bad  bee?a  left  there,  but  they  had  heurd 
nothing  of  the  "  Griffon."  Two  of  them  were  ordered  to  join 
Tonty  and  carry  the  message  about  fortifying  the  Rock,  to 
which  reference  has  been  made.  There  now  lay  before  them 
270  miles  of  an  unexplored  path  across  the  neck  of  the  lower 
Michigan  peninsula  to  the  Detroit  River.  They  encountered 
trials  and  dangers  enough  to  make  the  stoutest  quail.  Shea. 
who  is  much  inclined  to  belittle  and  disparage  all  of  La  Salle's 
acts,  looks  upon  this  fearful  tramp  as  "  the  only  really  bold  and 
adventurous  act "  in  his  career.  They  waded  through  drowned 
lands.  They  were  obliged  to  thaw  their  stiffened  clothes  in  *ho 
morning  before  they  could  move.  Where  they  found  a  path  in 
the  open  they  burned  the  grass  to  destroy  their  trail,  for  warring 
savages  invested  the  country,  little  discriminating  as  regards 
their  human  prey.  They  fortunately  escaped  them,  or  appeased 
them  if  encountered. 

On  reaching  the  Detroit  River,  along  which  the  Hurons  were 


LA   SALLE   ON   THE  ST.   LAWRENCE. 


271 


hhc 


now  gatherin  s,  into  a  permanent  Hettlement,  two  of  Lu  Salle*a 
men  were  sent  to  Mackinac  to  report  his  movements.  The 
leader  with  his  remaining  men  now  made  from  elm  bark  a  canoe 
in  which  the  reduced  party  finally  reached  Niagara.  Ho  here 
found  other  of  his  men  holding  the  post  near  the  shipyard  of 
the  *'  Griffon."  These  dependants  were  equally  without  tidings 
of  the  ill-fated  vessel,  and  had  new  misfortunes  to  report,  for 
a  ship  which  La  Salle  had  expected  with  supplies  had  been 
wrecked  in  the  St.  Lawrence.  Such  was  the  dismal  condition 
which  confronted  him  at  Niagara. 

La  Salle  had  borne  up  under  the  hardships  of  the  march 
better  than  his  men.     He  bravely  stood  all  these  failurt  s  of  his 
hopes.     Taking  three  fresh  men  in  place  of  his  prosti        fora- 
panions,  he   again  started   for  Fort  Frontenac,  and 
reached  that  post  on  May  6 ;  he  had  traveled  a  thou-  * ""  *^ron- 
sand  miles,  and  had  been  sixty-five  days  in  doing  it. 

There  was  little  to  inspirit  him  about  the  condition  in  which 
he  found  his  affairs.  Inquiries  disclosed  that  some  of  his 
trusted  agents  had  appropriated  the  profit  of  his  furs.  He 
learned  that  others  had  deserted  his  interests  and  had  taken  his 
skins  to  Albany.  Somebody  had  started  a  report  of  his  death, 
and  on  the  strength  of  it,  a  forced  sale  had  been  made  of  some 
of  his  effects.  There  was  yet,  however,  something  more  than  a 
reed  to  depend  on.  Frontenac  was  still  his  support,  and  La  Salle 
found  on  going  to  Montreal  that  he  could  yet  get  credit  and 
supplies.  During  the  two  months  in  which  La  Salle  addressed 
himself  to  the  improving  of  his  affairs,  he  succeeded  in  accom- 
plishing much,  and  was  on  the  eve  of  again  departing  for  the 
Illinois  when  one  of  the  parties  which  Tonty  had  sent  oft'  with 
the  news  of  the  revolt  at  Crevecoeur  reached  Fort  Frontenac. 
These  men  also  brought  tidings  of  the  later  riotous  conduct  of 
the  mutineers,  plundering  where  they  could,  and  that  they  were 
now  on  the  way  to  Cataraqui,  scattering  reports  as  they  came 
on  of  the  death  of  Tonty,  and  harboring  vengeance  on  La  Salle. 
It  was  towards  the  end  of  July,  1680,  when  La  Salle 
was  awakened  to  these  new  dangers.  His  decision 
was  prompt.  He  mustered  some  faithful  men,  and  started  to 
meet  the  vagabonds.  He  ambushed  his  party  on  the  track  of 
the  marauders,  and  easily  captured  the  two  canoes  which  were 
in  advance,  and  later  he  seized  a  third,  and  returned  with  all 
his  prisoners  to  the  fort. 


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IMAGE  EVALUATION 
TEST  TARGET  (MT-3) 


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Hiotographic 

Sciences 

Corporation 


33  WEST  MAIN  STREET 

WEBSTER,  N.Y.  M980 

(716)  873-4503 


272 


CATARAQUI  AND  CRkVECCEUR. 


1C80, 
August. 
Starts  west 


October. 


La  Salle  had  twenty-five  men  with  him  when,  a  few  days  later, 
he  left  the  fort.     He  followed  the  Humber  River,  and 
thence  crossing  to  Lake  Simcoe,  he  tracked  its  outlet 
■*■"■  to  Georgian  Bay.     Reaching  Mackinac,   he  divided 

his  party,  and  leaving  La  Forest,  now  his  lieutenant,  to  follow 
with  the  rest,  he  pushed  on  with  only  twelve  men. 
October  with  its  variegated  charms  had  come  when 
La  Salle  was  moving  with  his  canoes  along  the  eastern  shore  of 
Lake  Michigan,  —  just  at  the  moment,  we  have  seen,  when 
Tonty,  faltering  with  his  burdens,  was  being  borne  along  the 
western.  Neither  was  conscious  of  the  movements  of  the  other. 
In  November,  La  Salle  was  at  the  fort  w^  the  St. 
At  St.  Jo"     Joseph,  which  he  found   had  been  abandoned.     He 

seph'B  fort.  *  pt-i  i»i»i-i.c. 

wrote  here  tor  Jbrontenac  a  statement  of  his  belief  m 
pursuing  this  western  discovery.  He  left  five  men  to  repair 
and  occupy  the  post,  and  went  on  with  six  others  and  a  single 
Indian.  The  prairie,  as  they  passed  along  the  Kankakee,  was 
dark  in  places  with  hordes  of  buffaloes.  They  killed  twelve  and 
dried  the  meat.  They  passed  Starved  Rock;  it  was  silent. 
They  came  to  the  great  town  of  the  Illinois,  but  it  was  a  scene 
of  black  desolation.  Wolves  and  buzzards  were  feeding  upon 
the  half  buried  bodies  of  its  defenders.  The  skulls  which  were 
grinning  upon  poles  here  and  there  told  the  old  story  of  Iroquois 
ferocity.  In  the  Illinois  fort  they  found  a  few  bits  of  French 
cloth,  —  that  was  all.  The  skulls  were  examined,  —  they  were 
all  Indian.     Where  was  Tonty  ? 

La  Salle  left  three  men  to  conceal  themselves  near  the  town 
j^tt],g  for  the  present,  and  with  four  others  he  went  on.  He 
Illinois  fort,  fomid  wlicrc  the  camps  of  the  Illinois  and  the  invaders 
had  been  on  opposite  sides  of  the  river ;  but  everything  was 
abandoned.  He  reached  Crevecceur ;  it  was  demolished,  but 
the  vessel  was  still  on  the  stocks,  though  the  Iroquois  had  drawn 
out  the  iron  spikes.  He  still  went  on,  and  reached  the  Missis- 
necember,  sippi.  It  was  his  fii'st  sight  of  it.  Here  he  tied  a 
seesthe^M?^  Icttcr  for  Touty  to  a  tree,  and  turned  back.  It  was 
Bissippi.  jjQ^  ^Y\Q  early  days  of  December,  1680.  He  rejoined 
the  men  whom  he  had  left  near  the  Illinois  town,  and  a  great 
comet  hung  ominously  over  the  scene  of  desolation,  and  with  its 
baleful  impressiveness  following  him.  La  Salle  went  back  to  the 
Miami  country. 


r  I 


rej^air 


CHAPTER  XII. 

DULUTH   AND   HENNEPIN   ON  THE  MISSISSIPPI. 

1678-1683. 

DuLUTH  was  a  cousin  of  Tonty  with  the  silver  hand,  as  La 
Salle's  friend  was  desis^nated  because  of  his  metal 
member.     There  is  preserved  in  the  Archives  of  the 
Marine  at  Paris  an  account  which  Duluth  wrote  in  1683  of  his 
experiences  in  the  Sioux  country.     He  was   an   adventurous 
young  fellow,  who  had  found,  off  and  on,  attractions  in  the  Ca- 
nadian wilderness,  till  on  September  1,  1678,  he  was  jgYg  Among 
allowed  to  start  on  explorations  to  see  what  he  could  *''*  ^'°"'' 
find  among  the  Sioux.     The  priests  and  traders  had  known  this 
people  as  wanderers  and  loiterers  about  the  Lake  Superior  sta- 
tions for  several  j^ears.     Duluth  took  with  him  three  French- 
men  and  three   Indians,   and  wintered   somewhere   on   Lake 
Huron.    In  the  following  spring  (1679),  he  was  in  the 
woods  not  far  from  the  Sault  Ste.  Marie,  and  on  April 
5  he  wrote  to  Frontenac  that  he  was  preparing  to  forestall  the 
English,  and  to  get  ahead  of  any  Spanish  who  might  come 
from  the  South  Sea  to  explore  the  region  west  of  Lake  Superior. 
He  also  informed  the  governor  that  he  intended  to  set  up  the 
king's  arms  among  the  Sioux  who  inhabited  this  country.    This 
act  he  performed  on  the  2d  of  the  following  July,  in  the  midst 
of  the  Mille  Lacs  region.     In  the  autumn  (1679),  he  was  near 
the  head  of  Lake  Superior,  using  his  good  offices  to  jjg^,.  Lake 
establish  a  peace  between  the  Sioux  and  the  Assini-  S"!'^""""- 
boines.     This  was  about   September  15,  and  the  site  of   his 
mediation  seems  to  have  been  the  spot  where  later  Fort  William 
stood. 

The  enemies  of  Frontenac  were  not  backward  in  insinuating 
that  clandestine  trade  for  the  governor's  advantage  had  not  a 
little  to  do  with  this  movement  of  Duluth;   and  it  was  not 


'  in 


?  '! 


,     i 


H    '    5  V 


274    DULUTH  AND  HENNEPIN  ON  THE  MISSISSIPPI. 

unknown  that  a  trader  named  Pierre  Moreau,  but  commonly 
Pierre  Called  La  Taupine,  was  at  this  time  wandering  about 

^^iTil  this  very  region,  perhaps  with  Frontenac's  protection 
Taupine.  j^^  jjjg  pocket.  Some  years  before,  Joliet  had  found 
Moreau  in  the  Illinois  country,  and  when  afterwards  in  Mon- 
treal the  fellow  boasted  of  his  success  in  trading  for  furs,  and 
the  intendant  sought  to  arrest  him  for  illicit  traffic,  he  produced 
orders  from  Frontenac  appointing  him  to  secret  service  among 
the  Ottawas. 

In  the  summer  of  1680,  Duluth  was  once  more  in  this  region, 
ifigo.  and  this  time  he  sought  to  find  a  waterway  to  tlie 

Sng  a  Sioux  country,  which  he  had  reached  before  by  land, 
waterway  jj^  j^j^^j  ^.^^^  cauocs,  and  with  him  were  an  Indian 
interpreter  and  four  Frenchmen.  He  passed  from  Lake  Sujje- 
rior  into  the  Bois  Brule  River,  a  narrow  stream  with  an  ob- 
structed channel,  and  then  crossing  a  portage  he  reached  the 
St.  Clair  Lake,  and  so  descended  by  its  outlet  to  the 
Mississippi.  Duluth  had  learned  from  the  Sioux  that 
a  psirty  of  their  tribe  had  gone  down  the  river  to  hunt, 
and  that  some  Europeans  were  with  them.  Duluth  had 
intended  on  this  expedition  to  push  on  westward  to  salt  water, 
which  he  expected  would  prove  to  be  the  Gulf  of  California, 
and  he  supposed  it  was  distant  only  twenty  days'  journey.  It 
was  the  prevailing  notion  at  this  time  that  the  line  of  the  upper 
Mississippi  was  from  two  thirds  to  three  quarters  across  tl>e 
continent,  when  in  reality  it  is  about  midway.  This  is  tlie 
geographical  view  which  we  find  was  cherished  by  Joliet  and 
Hennepin,  and  appears  in  the  maps  of  Franquelin,  who  was 
at  this  time  living  in  Quebec,  and  embodying  in  his  maps  the 
latest  reports  of  the  western  explorers. 

Who  these  Europeans  were,  thus  following  the  hunting  party 
of  the  Sioux,  was  an  interesting  question,  which  Duluth  was 
anxious  to  solve,  for  it  was  possible  that  his  planting  of 
the  royal  column  amid  the  Mille  Lacs  was  none  too  soon,  if 
English  or  Spaniard  had  penetrated  to  its  neighborhood.  So 
leaving  two  of  his  men  to  guard  his  wares,  and  taking  the 
other  two  with  him,  Duluth  started  down  the  river. 

We  have  seen  that  just  before  La  Salle  left  Crcvecaur  -to  go 
back  to  C.ataraquf,  in  the  early  spring  of  1G80,  he  had  dis- 
patched Michel  Accault,  a  Picard  man,  whose  name  is  variously 


to  the  Mia- 
sieaippi, 
where  lie 
hears  of 
EuropeauBc 


BUILDING  OF  THE  "  GRIFFON." 


275 


I- 


V.  •■■  I 


I  I 


Ij 


i.  i 


rf  '■ 


■  .1 


i  f 


^     i.'J 


276    DULUTH  AND  HENNEPIN  ON  THE  MISSISSIPPI, 


1C80.    Ac- 
cault  and 
Hennepiu. 


April. 
Encoiiuter 
the  Biwu. 


8pelle<1,  with  Hennepin  and  another  Picard  man,  Du  Gay,  as 
companions.  Their  purpose  was  to  conduct  an  expe- 
dition to  the  region  where  we  have  just  parted  with 
Duluth.  The  trip  is  mostly  associated  with  Henne- 
pin,  because  we  depend  on  his  account  of  their  wanderings ;  but 
Aocault,  as  the  better  linguist,  seems  to  have  been  in  charge 
by  La  Sailers  appointment. 

Passing  down  the  Illinois,  the  little  party  turned  up  the 
Mississippi,  and  went  on  amid  the  floating  ice.  They  paddled 
up  beyond  the  Wisconsin,  and  when  near  the  Black 
River,  on  April  11,  they  met  a  party  o£  Sioux,  a  hun- 
dred  and  more  in  number,  in  thirty-three  birch  canoes. 
The  savages  came  down  upon  the  little  exploring  party  with 
precipitation,  and  soon  surrounded  them.  The  Frenchmen 
seemed  for  a  while  in  great  danger,  but  the  Sioux  had  already 
profited  by  the  French  trade,  and  whatever  passions  for  plun- 
der stirred  them  now,  there  was  prudence  enough  in  the  savage 
leaders  to  check  the  murderous  impulse.  They  therefore  car- 
ried the  captives  to  their  villages.  The  whole  flotilla  struggled 
up  against  the  current,  till,  coming  to  the  widening  of  the 
stream  below  the  modern  St.  Paul,  their  canoes  were  hidden, 
and  the  party  made  the  rest  of  the  journey  by  land,  and  found 
a  halt  at  last,  and  relief  from  a  march  which  proved  weary  and 
painful  to  the  prisoners,  on  the  shores  of  Lake  Buade.  Here 
the  Frenchmen  were  detained  for  some  weeks,  being  distributed 
to  separate  masters  ;  but  all  three  were  at  last  brought  together, 
to  accompany  a  party  of  their  captors  down  the  Mississippi  on 
a  buffalo  hunt.  Later,  Accault  preferring  to  stay  with  the  In- 
dians, Hennepin  and  Du  Gay  were  allowed  to  depart  in  a  canoe 
to  try  to  join  some  French,  who,  as  La  Salle  had  prom- 
ised, were  to  be  at  the  mouth  of  the  Wisconsin.  They 
went  off  in  the  slumbrous  air  of  summer,  —  for  it  was 
July,  1680,  —  and  floated  with  the  current  till  the  falls  near 
the  modem  Minneapolis  confronted  them.  This  cataract  owes 
the  name  of  St.  Anthony  to  Ileanepin,  who  now  first  saw  it. 
Carrying  their  canoe  to  the  quiet  water  below,  they  still  went 
on,  wondering  at  the  seamy  towers  of  nature's  architecture 
everywhere  around  them.  At  last  they  cast  a  longing  gaze 
u}H)n  the  festooned  trees  which  marked  the  approach  to  Lake 
Popin,  and  were  smoothly  floated  out  upon  its  waters. 


1C8I0,  July, 
Hennepin 
releaaed. 


THE   TWO  EXPLORERS  MEET. 


277 


In  this    neighborhood   Plennepin  encountered  the    Indian 
whose  adopted  son  he  had  become  during  his  stay  at  Lake  Bu- 
ade,  and  from  him  he  learned  that  a  band  of  the  Sioux  were  not 
far  off,  hunting  on  a  tributary  of  the  Mississippi.     The  French- 
men's ammunition  was  well-nigh  spent,  and  they  found  it  im- 
possible to  keep  from  one  meal  to  another  the  game  which  they 
were  fortunate  enough  to  kill.     With  powder  gone  they  would 
be  in  danger  of  famishing.     The  lesser  evil  was  to  join  these 
hunting  Sioux,  which  they  did,  and  they  found  Accault  among 
them.     While  in  company  with  these  Sioux,  two  squaws  came 
from  the  east  and  reported  meeting  a  war  party  of 
their  tribe,  accompanied  by  five  white  men.     Henne-  of  white 
pin  was  as  curious  as  Duluth  had  been  to  know  what 
other  Europeans  were  so  near  him.     They  were  in  fact  Duluth 
and  his  companions. 

The  party  which  Hennepin  had  joined,  having  now  ended 
their  hunt,  started  northward  towards  their  homes,  „ 

,  Hennepin 

and  it  was  not  long  before  the  two  Sioux  parties  met,  meets 
and  Hennepin  and  Duluth  encountered  one  another. 

It  was  represented  later  both  by  Hennepin  and  Duluth  that 
at  the  time  of  their  meeting  Hennepin  was  in  forcible  deten- 
tion by  the  Sioux,  and  that  it  was  Duluth's  intervention  which 
released  him.  The  story  is  not  altogether  credible,  and  La 
Salle  at  least  did  not  believe  it.  At  all  events,  the  two  French- 
men parted  with  the  Indians  in  company,  and  with  their  com- 
panions, eight  in  all,  they  passed  up  the  Wisconsin,  where 
the  traders  which  La  Salle  had  intended  to  meet  them  were 
not  to  be  found,  as  the  reader  might  readily  suppose  from  the 
evil  fortune  which  had  overtaken  that  leader.  They  passed 
unmolested  by  the  Fox  River  to  Green  Bay,  and  win-  ^^^^  ^^ 
tered  at  Mackinac.  In  May,  1681,  Duluth  reached  juthat  Que~ 
Quebec,  and  was  arrested  for  illegal  trading  at  the 
west.  The  suppression  of  clandestine  traffic  had  proved  so 
difficult  that  the  home  government  made  a  virtue  of  necessity, 
and  sent  orders  that  the  treasury  should  profit  from  a  freer  dis- 
tribution of  licenses.  It  was  directed  that  twenty-five  such 
permits  should  be  given  annually,  each  covering  a  single  canoe 
and  three  men.  The  spirit  of  the  order  was  enough  to  estal)- 
lish  greater  leniency  for  such  transgressions  as  had  gone  by, 
and  Duluth  was  released. 


JP' 

I 

i;*l 

1 

1 

1 

rli  I 


278    DULUTH  AND  HENNEPIN  ON  THE  MISSISSIPPI. 


narrative  in 
Paris,  witli 
a  map. 


In  the  same  spring  (1681),  Hennepin  appeared  among  his 

old  companions  at  Fort  Frontenac,  ahnost  as  an  appa- 

Fort  Fron-     rition,  for  it  was  believed,  as  the  report  ran,  that  the 

savages  had  hanged  him  with  his  own  waist-rope.     At 

Montreal  he  met  Frontenac  and  interested  him  in  his  story,  and 

then  sailed  for  France. 

By  the  following  summer  he  had  prepared  a  manuscript  of 
his  adventures,  and,  September  3,  permission  was 
liBiieg  his  given  to  him  in  Paris  to  put  it  to  press,  and  on  Jan- 
uary 6,  1683,  it  was  issued  as  a  Description  de  hi 
Louisiane.  It  is  probable  that  at  this  time  the  priest 
was  abiding  in  the  convent  at  St.  Germain-en-Laye.  The  book 
is  accompanied  by  a  map,  which  has  some  noteworthy  features. 
One  is  that  the  southern  shore  of  Lake  Erie  is  carried  so  far 
south  as  to  cover  the  proper  latitude  of  the  Ohio,  of  which  river 
the  map  shows  no  sign.  Indeed,  Hennepin  seems  to  have  missed 
a  true  conception  of  that  stream,  for  he  says  it  is  in  the  country 
of  the  Iroquois,  and  affords  a  passage  to  the  Sea  of  Florida.  It 
is  surprising  that  Hennepin  could  have  been  the  companion  of 
La  Salle  and  not  have  heard  of  the  latter's  visit  to  that  river 
fourteen  years  before,  unless,  indeed.  La  Salle  at  this  time  had 
no  conception  that  the  river  which  he  then  followed  flowed  into 
the  Mississippi.  If  the  southern  shore  of  Lake  Erie  had  ever 
been  tracked  by  explorers,  equipped  after  the  usual  fashion  of 
the  time  with  astrolabes,  it  is  also  surprising  that  some  record 
of  its  approximate  latitude  should  not  have  been  known,  for 
Hennepin  could  hardly  have  failed  of  converse  with  Franqueliu 
when  he  was  at  Quebec  on  his  way  to  France,  and  that  cai- 
tographer  studiously  kept  abreast  of  the  increasing  knowledge 
of  these  distant  parts.  That  European  axemen  had  been  in  this 
region  just  about  this  time  has  been  claimed  by  Colonel  Whittlt'- 
sey,  because  of  the  discovery  in  numerous  places  of  trees  show- 
ing the  cuts  of  broad-bitted  axes  under  the  annual  rings,  which 
had  begun  as  early  as  this  period  to  overlay  the  wound.  It  is 
of  course  possible  that  such  implements  might  have  been 
wielded  by  the  savages  themselves,  and  procured  through  the 
Iroquois  from  the  English  mart  at  Albany. 

Another  noticeable  point  of  the  map  is  the  representatit)n  of 
a  mission  station  far  north  of  the  source  of  the  Mississippi, 
where  it  is  certain  that  none  had  been  established,  or  at  least 


MAP  OF  168S. 


279 


there  is  no  record  of  such.     Tlie  i)lacing  of  it  there  seems  to 
have  been  a  pretension  on  the  part  of  the  Recollect  Hennepin 


HENNEFIN,  1683. 


that  his  order  had  outstripped  the  venturesome  Jesuits,  but  he 
prudently  removed  it  from  his  later  maps. 


'!<      I'.  , 


^i  i 


n 


■  r 


,:J:'.  J:;! 


m 


BtrnlU  of 
AuiaD. 


280    DULUTH  AND  HENNEPIN  ON  THE  MISSISSIPPI. 

In  tho  book  itself,  Hennepin  speaks  of  encountering  four 
Indians  on  his  route  who  had  come  from  a  place  four  hundred 
leagues  farther  west,  and  had  been  four  months  on  the  way, 
and  they  had  assured  him  that  there  was  no  place  like  thu 

Straits  of  Anian,  such  as  was  put  down  on  the  maps. 

Here  was  a  reference  to  an  old  problem  that  had  puz- 
zled many  generations  of  geographers.  If  Humboldt  has  cor- 
rectly divined  the  origin  of  the  mystery,  —  it  is  liard  to  be 
satislied  that  he  has,  —  the  notion  had  arisen  as  early  as  1500, 
when  Cortereal  had  found  the  opening  of  Davis's  Straits,  that 
it  was  in  some  way  the  ingress  to  Asia,  and  was  called  tlie 
Straits  of  Anian.  It  is  certainly  a  long  time  after  that  before 
we  meet  the  name,  or  the  passage  itself,  in  cartographical  ecu- 
jecture,  and,  indeed,  it  was  hardly  possible  that  it  could  have 
existed  on  the  maps  before  the  substantial  insularity  of  North 
America  was  established.  It  was  then  placed  so  as  to  prefigure 
the  later-found  Bering's  Straits,  only  considerably  farther  south. 
Running  in  a  general  north  and  south  direction,  it  was  mude 
to  form  a  passage  to  the  wide  expanse  of  water  which  in  the 
sixteenth  century  was  generally  believed  to  lie  along  the  north- 
ern confines  of  Canada.  It  is  found  in  this  position  in  the  map 
of  Zalterius  in  1566.  The  interval  from  the  days  of  Cartier  to 
the  coming  of  Champlain,  when  almost  nothing  was  done  to 
clear  up  the  geography  of  the  nortliern  verge  of  Canada,  was 
when  conceptions  of  the  Straits  of  Anian,  traversing  or  openuig 
to  this  region  from  the  Pacific  side,  were  most  rife.  It  got 
recognition  from  Mercator,  Ortelius,  Porcacchi,  and  Furlano, 
who  were  leading  geographers  of  those  days.  It  appeared  in 
the  maps  of  Sir  Humphrey  Gilbert  and  Frobisher,  and  the  straits 
called  after  the  latter  were  supposed  to  connect  with  it.  Drake 
sought  it  in  1578 ;  and  six  years  later,  when  Gali  made  a 
northern  sweep  from  the  Philippines  to  Acapulco,  he  was  thought 
to  have  disproved  its  existence  by  the  breadth  which  he  fouiul 
the  North  Pacific  to  have.  The  tendency  was  to  move  the  posi- 
tion of  the  straits  farther  north,  and  Wytfliet  in  the  first  Ameri- 
can atlas  (1597)  reverted  to  the  old  notion,  which  was  kept  up 
later  by  Hondius  (1613).  Thirty  years  afterwards  the  explo- 
rations of  De  Vries,  the  Dutch  navigator,  induced  people  to  think 
for  a  while  that  where  Gali  had  supposed  a  broad  ocean,  there 
was  really  a  huge  island,  which  the  Spanish  navigator  did  not  go 


LAND  OF  JESSO. 


S81 


far  enough  north  to  see.  This  was  thought  to  bo  of  almost  cou< 
tinental  extent,  barring  access  to  the  boreal  regions  except  at  its 
eastern  and  western  extremities.  The  channel  on  the  American 
side  of  this  island  thus  became  the  straits  ho  long  searched  for. 
This  was  perhaps  the  prevalent  belief  when   Hennepin  ques* 


M 

O 
W 


CD        '5  : 
»       Hi 


ii 


,>  ; 


m 


I 


m 


tioned  these  hardy  wanderers  from  the  distant  west  on   the 
upper  waters  of  the  Mississippi. 

While  recording  this  denial  of  the  straits'  existence,  Henne- 
pin refers  to  the  failure,  as  he  understood  it,  of  both  the  Euj>'- 
lish  and  the  Dutch  to  find  such  a  passage  at  the  north,  but 
expresses  a  faith  that  by  pursuing  some  of  his  own  discoveries, 


t, . 


1  .  I 


\ 

V 


282    DULUTH  AND  HENNEPIN  ON  THE  M/SSlSSIPPf. 


Kll 


a  river  would  yet  he  found  capable  of  floating  large  vchsoIs  to 
the  South  Sea,  where  without  crosHing  the  equator,  Asia  could 
be  reached.  *' It  is  most  likely/*  he  adds,  **  that  Japan  and 
America  are  one  continent,"  and  such  was  not  an  infrequent 
belief  in  sunu;  form,  before  the  severance  of  Asia  and  America 
was  finally  established  by  Bering  nearly  fifty  years  later.  lien, 
nepin  wavered  in  his  dissent,  or  perhaps  his  editor  did  for  him, 
for  when  in  1G97  his  new  edition  appeared,  he  adopted  the 
Dutch  notion  of  Jesse  —  as  the  intervening  island  already  men- 
tioned was  called  —  in  a  map  of  the  north  Pacific  which  is  given 
in  that  book. 

Hennepin's  reputation  with  posterity  has  rested  rather  upon 
Hennepin'i  ^^^^^  later  cditiou  than  upon  his  original  of  1G83,  and 
veracity.  ^^^^  ^  j^jg  advantage.  In  this  earlier  book,  except- 
ing his  forcible  detention  by  the  Sioux,  which  La  SaUe  found 
it  worth  while  to  discredit,  there  is  not  much  to  question. 
Parkman  calls  it  **  comparatively  truthful."  It  stands  reason- 
ably well  a  critical  test,  and  the  internal  evidence  is  in  its  favor. 
It  has  been  alleged  by  Margry  that  the  correspondence  in  the 
text  shows  a  closer  relation  to  an  account  written  by  La  Salle 
than  is  consistent  with  an  independent  relation ;  but  this  cor- 
respondence extends  to  events  of  which  Hennepin  had  personal 
knowledge,  and  La  Salle  had  not.  It  is  therefore  reasonable  to 
suppose  that  Hennepin  may  have  acted  as  a  scribe  for  La  Salle, 
and  that  each  used  the  same  record  for  his  own  purposes.  It 
is  hardly  worth  while  to  go  to  the  other  extreme  adopted  by  Shea 
in  charging  La  Salle  with  pilfering  from  Hennepin. 

The  map  which  accompanied  this  Description  omitted  the 
lower  parts  of  the  Mississippi  where  it  connected  itself  with  the 
gulf,  and  this  connection  was  only  suggested  by  a  dotted  line. 
The  Nouvelle  Decouverte  of  1697  is  the  Descrip- 
tion de  la  Louisiane  of  1683,  enlarged.  It  purports 
also  to  be  a  more  truthful  account  of  Hennepin's 
discoveries  than  he  felt  at  liberty  to  make  while  La  Salle,  whom 
he  looked  upon  as  an  enemy,  was  alive.  These  suppressed  state- 
ments, no  longer  withheld,  were  to  substantiate  his  new  map, 
which  boldly  represented  the  Mississippi  throughout  its  entire 
course  to  the  gulf.  There  is  some  reason  to  believe  that  about 
the  time  of  issuing  his  first  book,  he  orally  professed  to  have 
descended  the  Mississippi ;  but  that  book  contains  only  a  regret 


Hennepin's 

Aonrelle 

Dicouverle. 


HENNEPIN  AND  MEMRRA. 


283 


n\n\omeUe 
Voyaije. 


that  ho  had  not  tho  tinio  to  do  ho.  Tho  Htatement  which  ho 
now  printed  represented  that  when  ho  and  Accault  went  down 
tho  Illinois  to  its  mouth,  they  then  turned  downstream  and 
proceeded  to  tho  outlet  of  tho  Mississippi.  After  this,  return* 
ing  to  tho  starting-place,  they  went  up,  and  pursued  tho  course 
which  had  induced  tho  narrative  of  tho  earlier  hook.  This 
meant,  provided  tho  dates  given  in  tho  Description  were  cor- 
rect, that  Hennepin  had,  within  tho  thirty  days  which  were  al- 
lowed for  tho  exploit,  paddled  thirty-two  hundred  miles,  down 
and  up  stream,  and  that  ho  had  made  sixty  miles  a  day,  when 
only  an  average  of  perhaps  twenty  to  twenty-five  was  possible. 
La  Salle,  in  one  of  his  papers,  says  that  a  day's  travel  on  tho 
river  means  seven  or  eight  leagues.  It  was  certain  this  difficulty 
would  be  noted,  as  well  as  the  remarkable  secrecy  which  had 
been  maintained  in  his  first  book  regarding  the  undertaking. 
Some  bluster  was  sufficient  to  moot  the  charge  respecting  tho 
secrecy,  and  this  was  abundantly  offered  in  tho  Nou- 
vclle  Voyage,  which  was  printed  as  a  sort  of  supple- 
ment the  next  year.  In  this  a  violent  preface  defended  his 
claim  to  have  gone  down  the  Mississippi.  To  support  his  auda- 
city, ho  had  two  resources :  one  was  to  assert  that  the  distance 
was  not  what  it  was  supposed  to  be,  and  the  other  was  so  to 
change  his  dates  that  ho  could  make  it  appear  that  he  had 
forty-three  days  instead  of  thirty  for  the  task. 

Curiously  enough,  he  boldly  in  the  Nouvelle  Voyage  shifted 
the  charge  of  plagiarism  —  which  followed  upon  its  being  dis- 
covered that  the  account  of  La  Salle's  own  voyage  to  the  mouth 
of  the  Mississippi    bore   a  close  resemblance  to  Hennepin's 
narrative  —  upon   Leclercq,  in  whose  Premier  Etabliss(  /iient 
de  la  Foy,  Hennepin's  text,  with  little  change,  had  recently  ap- 
peared, as  a  journal  of  Membre,  the  companion  of  La  Membr.;'. 
Salle.    It  was  now  asserted  that  Hennepin  had  left  in  ^°"""'^' 
Quebec  an  account  of  his  own  experience  while  descending  the 
river  in  1680,  to  which  Leclercq  got  access,  and  converted  it  to 
his  purpose  in  describing  the  adventures  of  La  Salle  for  the  fol- 
lowing year.    Dr.  Poole,  who,  in  an  address  before  the  American 
Historical  Association  in  1888,  was  inclined  to  look  charitably 
on  the  charges  ordinarily  preferred  against  Hennepin,  frankly 
acknowledged  that  if  he  was  the  author  of  this  statement,  a 
defense  of  his  reputation  is  hopeless. 


ilv 


i 


u 


4\ 


>-t ' 


Pi 


vi 


if  >      ! 

i '  n 


«v 


4 


'?US. 


ill 


jjl- 


w 

El  ".^ 


m] 


t  • 


III 


284      DULUTH  AND  HENNEPIN  ON  THE  MISSISSIPPI. 

Sparks,  in  his  Life  of  La  Salle^  made  a  thorough  exposure 
of  the  correspondences  of  Hennepin's  narrative  with  the  journal 
of  Membre  as  given  by  Leclercq.  From  that  day  to  Parkman's 
Hennepin  has  usually  been  held  up  to  the  modern  reader's 
scorn.    Shea,  not  long  after  Sparks's  exposure,  went  so  far  as  to 


throw  discredit  upon  what  Hennepin  says  of  the  upper  Missis- 
sippi, and  to  doubt  if  he  ever  went  upon  its  waters  at  all. 

Of  late  there  have  been  persistent  efforts  to  restore  the  good 
Defense  of  name  of  Hennepin,  and  Shea,  to  make  amends  for  his 
Hennerin.     g^rly  mistrust,  has  been  the  chief  advocate  of  these 


PPL 

xposure 
journal 

irkman's 
reader's 

far  as  to 


r  Missi.s- 
,11. 

the  good 
Is  for  his 
of  these 


MAP   OF  1607. 


285 


later  views.  The  argument  which  has  been  relied  upon  is  this : 
Hennepin  having  prepared  a  new  edition  of  his  Description^iha 
copy  was  left  with  the  publisher,  who,  to  add  to  the  attractive- 
ness of  the  book,  and  to  give  some  surprises  that  would  induce 
a  larger  sale,  subjected  it  to  further  remodeling  by  an  irre- 


X 


sponsible  editor.  It  was  the  work  of  this  literary  jobber  who, 
it  is  claimed,  interpolated  the  citations  from  Membre.  He  it 
was,  too,  who  added  to  the  book  the  parts  which  are  relied 
upon  to  prove  Hennepin's  audacity.  That  there  was  such  a 
mendacious  editor  is  supposed  to  be  shown  in  the  passages  which 


%;r  ii 


286    DULUTH  AND  HENNEPIN  ON  THE  MISSISSIPPI. 


i:v 


This  Jirgu- 


Hennepin,  as  a  Catholic,  could  not  have  written, 
ment  is  not  a  strong  one,  for  Hennepin  was  quite  capablo  of 
writing,  it  is  to  be  feared,  much  that  one  would  not  suppose 
him  to  write.  The  other  argument  is  stronger,  for  it  is  founded 
on  a  comparison  of  type  and  other  signs  of  the.  printing-office, 
to  show  that  these  questionable  parts  were  not  set  up  in  the 
same  office,  or  at  least  at  the  same  time,  with  those  which  are 
not  questioned.  It  does  not  certainly  follow  as  a  matter  of 
course  that  Hennepin  could  not  have  done  even  this,  though 
his  defenders  would  fain  think  that  he  could  not.  It  is  reason- 
able perhaps  to  suppose,  if  Hennepin  had  found  his  name  was 
used  to  inflict  a  wrong,  that  he  would  have  in  some  way  recti- 
fied the  error,  or  at  least  have  prevented  the  repetition  of  it  in 
the  numerous  editions  of  the  text  which  followed,  or  were  trans- 
formed by  translations.  He  certainly  busied  himself  with  no 
such  purpose,  and  winced  not  a  little  under  the  imputations  of 
fraud  which  early  beset  him.  The  Nouvelle  Voyage 
Voyage,  of  1698  rctumcd  to  the  task  of  imposing  on  the  public. 
His  defenders  resort  to  the  supposition  that  this  book 
was  under  the  same  evil  influences  of  a  hireling  publisher  as 
the  one  of  the  previous  yeai*,  and  that  Hennepin  had  no  more 
to  do  with  its  impositions  than  with  the  earlier  ones. 

Meanwhile,  pursued,  as  is  represented,  by  the  enmity  of  the 
provincial  of  his  order  in  Paris,  either  through  the  influence  of 
La  Salle  or  because  of  some  recalcitrancy  of  his  own,  Hennepin 
had  thrown  himself  into  the  service  of  William  III.  of  Eng- 
land, whom  he  had  known  in  the  Netherlands,  and  simultane- 
The  New  ously  a  Combination  of  the  books  of  1697  and  1098 
Discovery,  ^^g  brought  out  in  English  at  London,  as  The  New 
Discovery.,  and  the  imposition  went  on. 

Membre's  journal  is  very  like  a  Relation  which  is  preserved 
in  the  Archives  of  the  Marine  at  Paris,  which  Parkman  suspects 
was  La  Salle's  official  report,  drawn  up  perhaps  by  Membre, 
if  indeed  it  was  not  written  by  La  Salle  himself,  as  some  sup- 
pose. That  Hennepin  got  access  to  this  in  the  manuscript,  and 
was  not  compelled  to  draw  upon  Leclercq's  printed  volume,  is 
not  unlikely,  though  it  has  been  alleged  that  he  more  confi- 
dently used  the  book  of  Leclercq  because  the  chance  of  detec- 
tion was  decreased  from  the  suppression  of  that  printed  narra- 
tive.    There  is  certainly  room  for  doubt  as  to  the  authorship  of 


V. 


ai-gu- 


ibL 


MEMBRi:  AND   THE  RELATION. 


287 


this  Relation,  —  it  is  given  by  Margry,  —  and  just  precisely 
what  are  the  separate  or  combined  connections  of  La  Salle, 
Membre,  and  Hennepin  with  it  is  open  to  conjecture.  It  was 
very  likely  a  compilation  from  various  sources,  made  in  Paris 
for  presentation  to  Colbert,  and  perhaps  put  in  shape  by  the 
Abbe  Bernon,  as  has  been  alleged. 


IS 


% 


"t  % 


ih 


In  r 


CHAPTER   XIII. 

LA   SALLE,   FRONTENAC,    AND   LA   BARRE. 

1681-1683. 

A  WEARY,  disheartening  winter  lay  before  La  Salle  at  his 
1081.  La  po^'  i^  *^*®  Miami  country.  He  had  left  the  wreck 
M/imi"coun.  "^  ^"^  fortunes  on  the  Illinois.  There  were  no  tid- 
*'y-  ings  of  his  faitliful  Tonty,  though  a   piece  of   sawn 

wood  which  he  had  seen  on  the  Kankakee  gave  him  hope  that 
his  friend  had  passed  that  way.  La  Salle  knew  how  the  story 
of  his  misfortunes  would  sap  the  sj^irits  of  his  distant  friends. 
Those  who  had  risked  money  on  his  undertaking  were  to  be 
appeased.  He  had,  during  the  autumn,  written  to  one  such, 
assuring  him  that  profits  would  surely  come,  if  he  would  only 
be  patient.  "I  am  disgusted  at  being  always  compelled  to 
make  excuses,"  he  wrote,  "  but  I  hope  you  will  get  other 
information  of  how  things  are  going  on  here,  beside  what  the 
Jesuits  give  you."  He  advised  his  supporter  to  send  some  one 
out  who  could  take  an  intelligent  view  of  the  situation.  lie 
did  not  greatly  encourage  such  a  creditor,  I  suspect,  when  he 
acknowledged  that  he  had  little  business  skill  of  his  own,  and 
knew  nothing  about  bookkeeping ! 

When  he  reached  the  fort  on  the  St.  Josejjh,  in  January, 
1681,  he  found  La  Forest  with  his  party  occupying  it.  They 
were  getting  out  timber  for  a  new  vessel,  and  had  repaired  the 
defenses  of  the  post.  In  the  neighborhood  there  were  a  few 
New  England  Indians  hutted  for  the  winter.  They  were  out- 
casts that  had  fled  west  after  the  failure  of  King  Philip's  war, 
and  were  mainly  Mohegans  and  Abenakis,  La  Salle  won  a 
staunch  friend  among  them,  and  his  Mohegan  hunter  long 
merited  his  confidence. 

Dethroned  almost  from  leadership  as  he  was.  La  Salle's 
steadfast  spirit  was  planning  how  he  might  head  a  league  of  the 


le  at  his 
he  wreck 
!  no  tid- 
of  sawn 
lope  that 
the  story 
t  friends, 
ere  to  be 
)ne  snch, 
nild  only 
pelled  to 
^et  other 
what  the 
some  one 
on.  lie 
when  ho 
own,  and 

January, 

it.  They 
•aired  the 
2re  a  few 
were  out- 
lip's  war, 
le  won  a 
liter  long 

a  Salle's 
:ue  of  the 


LA   SALLE  FINDS   TONTY. 


289 


Miamis  and  other  western  savages,  in  the  hope  that  it  could 
roll  back  the  tide  of  Iroquois  success.     Perhaps  he  could  work 
upon  them  through  his  faithful  Mohegans.    In  March, 
he  started  on  towards  the  Illinois,  full  of  this  hope.  Goes'  toward 
On  the  way,  he  met  a  band  of  the  Foxes,  and  from 
them  learned  that  Hennepin  had  passed  through  their  country 
from  the  Sioux  region,  and  that  Tonty  was  among  the  Potta- 
wattamies.     These  tidings  hurried  him  on.     He  laid  his  plans 
before  the  Illinois,  and  then,  coming  back  to  the  JSIiamis,  en- 
deavored to  enlist  their  sympathies  with  those  of  the  New  Eng- 
land Indians  that  were   scattered  about  the  country.     He  felt 
that  he  had  accomplished  something,  and,  leaving  the  plot  to 
ripen,  he  started  from  Fort  Miami  toward  the  end  of  j^gj  j,,^^ 
May,  and  made   his   way  to  Mackinac.      There   he  ft  Mackinac 
found  Tonty  and  Membre,  and  spent  awhile  in  talking  "oFort""^"* 
over  their  varied  mishaps.     It  was  now  June,  1681.  ^'""t™'":- 
IVIembr^  gives  us  a  picture  of  La  Salle  bearing  up,  as  he  saw 
him,  under  his  accumulated  burdens.     In  this  courageous  frame 
of  mind,  he  and  Tonty  left  Mackinac,  and  undertook  a  thou- 
sand miles  of  canoeing  to  his  seigneury  at  Cataraqui.     Here  he 
addressed  himself  to  repairing  his  credit  and  getting  a  new 
outfit.     He  offered  his  creditors  a  lien  upon  his  estate  and  dis- 
covered new  resources,  making  his  will  at  the  same  time  in 
favor  of  one  of  his  chief  abettors,  a  cousin,  for  whom  he  seems 
to  have  had  much  consideration. 

It  was  at  this  time  (August  22)  that  he  wrote  a  letter 
which  Margry  assigns  to  the  following  year,  but  its  contents  be- 
long clearly  to  this  period.  The  letter  is  given  largely  to  com- 
l)laining  of  Duluth,  whom  he  accuses  of  boastfully 
claiming  for  his  discoveries  in  the  Sioux  region  what  fo^  Hemie- 
La  Salle  thinks  should  be  rather  credited  to  his  own  <iisRust  witu 
agents,  Accault  and  Hennepin.  Just  what  La  Salle 
had  to  depend  upon  for  a  knowledge  of  Hennepin's  movements 
is  not  clear,  for  the  priest  had  before  this  passed  on  to  Quebec 
and  France.  It  is  possible  that  the  priest  left  some  narrative 
for  La  Salle.  We  know  that  he  later  left,  or  said  he  left,  a 
duplicate  statement  with  another  priest  at  Quebec.  Accault's 
account  is  thought  to  be  embodied  in  the  Dernieres  Decou- 
vertes  (Paris,  1697)  which  Tonty,  to  whom  it  was  ascribed,  dis- 
owned. This  narrative  may  at  this  time  have  been  accessible  to 
La  Salle. 


5_tf  ■'' 


Ti: 


1  ,• 


\i 


'i  ■• 


;;. ;  i 


1 


^^ 


290 


LA  SALLE,  FRONTENAC,  AND  LA  BARRE. 


There  was  another  grievance  on  La  Salle's  part,  —  he  was 
seldom  without  such  troubles,  —  in  that  Duluth,  beside  boasting, 
as  he  said,  of  his  discoveries,  was  undertaking  to  open  comniu- 
nieation  with  the  Sioux  country  through  the  Illinois  region, 
over  which  La  Salle  claimed  a  prescriptive  right,  and  with 
whose  trade  he  could  allow  no  one  to  interfere.  La  Salle 
claimed  further  to  have  established  a  right  to  kill  buffalo  on 
the  Wisconsin,  to  the  exclusion  of  any  such  interlopers  as 
Duluth. 

There  was  much  in  this  arrogant  spirit  of  La  Salle,  notwith- 
standing some  validity  in  his  claim,  to  make  his  enemies  all 
the  more  clamorous.  La  Salle  never  succeeded  in  holding  an 
easy  mastery  over  other  than  his  nearest  friends.  Charlevoix 
tells  us  that  La  Salle's  enemies  darkened  his  character  beyond 
the  power  of  his  friends  to  lighten  its  traits.  There  was  no 
La  Salle  and  ^^^^  upon  whom  La  Salle  bestowed  severer  objurga- 
the  Jesuiu,  tiojjg  tha^  upon  AUouez  and  his  Jesuit  abettors.  He 
charged  all  his  adversities  largely  upon  their  machinations. 
He  avowed  that  they  did  not  hesitate  to  report  false  rumors  of 
his  own  and  Tonty's  death. 


It  was  in  August  that  La  Salle  was  once  more  on  his  way 

.-,0.  .         west.      He  had,  according  to  one  account,  fifty-four 

IG8I,  August.  ....  i*  ,  ,.1 

starts  wMt    persons  in  his  train,  and  twenty-three  of  them  were 

agaiu.  '  ^ 

French.  His  Indians  were  wholly  from  New  Eng- 
land. He  may  have  gathered  recruits  on  his  way,  for  another 
statement,  written  by  him  to  a  friend,  gives  him  thirty  Frencli- 
men  and  a  hundred  Indians,  some  of  them  Shawnees,  and  all, 
Nov.  3.  At  h®  said,  were  handy  with  guns.  On  November  3,  he 
Fort  Miauii.  ^^g  ^^  p^^j.  j^iami,  and  Tonty  and  Membre  were  with 

him.  Here  he  divided  his  party.  Tonty  and  Membre  with 
most  of  the  train  pushed  around  the  head  of  the  lake,  a  hundred 
miles,  to  the  Chicago  River,  and  thence  dragged  their  burdens 
over  eighty  leagues  of  the  frozen  streams  to  the  Illinois.  On 
January  4,  1682,  La  Salle  himself  joined  them  by  tlie 
Kankakee  route.  They  found  open  water  for  their 
canoes  when  they  reached  the  ruins  of  Crevecceur,  and 
on  February  6  they  glided  out  upon  the  Mississippi, 
known  at  this  time  as  the  Colbert  River.  Here  they  were 
entangled  in  the  ice-floes  for  several  days,  but  at  last  the  chan- 


1C82,  Jan., 
Feb.    At 
Cri'vecwur 
and  on  the 
Mississippi. 


—  he  was 
boasting, 
sn  commu- 
is  region, 
and  with 
La  Salle 
buffalo  on 
rlopers  as 

e,  notwitn- 
nemies  all 
lolding  an 
]!harlevoix 
er  beyond 
re  was  no 
T  objurga- 
ttors.  He 
chinations. 
rumors  of 


on  his  way 
i,  fifty-four 
them  were 
New  Eng- 
lor  another 
'ty  French- 
3S,  and  all, 
mber  3,  he 
3  were  with 
jmbre  with 

a  hundred 
sir  burdens 
inois.  On 
lem  by  the 
p  for  their 
ecoeur,  and 
klississippi, 

they  were 
t  the  chan- 


ON  THE  MISSISSIPPI. 


291 


nel  cleared,  and  they  went  on.  Passing  the  mouth  of  the  Osage 
(Missouri),  Membre  records  that  beyond  the  mountains,  where 
its  sources  are,  "  great  ships  are  seen."  They  passed  the  Ohio, 
but  La  Salle  does  not  seem  to  have  comprehended  that  it  was 
the  stream  he  had  found  in  1669,  for  there  is  reason  to  believe 
that  he  supposed  the  river  which  at  that  time  he  followed  made 
its  way  to  the  sea  by  some  basin  east  of  the  Mississippi,  and  he 
had  apparently  communicated  this  belief  to  Hennepin.  He  was 
impelled  to  this  notion  by  finding  no  large  river  south  of  the 
Ohio  flowi;.  J  into  the  Mississippi  from  the  east,  corresponding 
to  the  ample  currents  of  the  Red  and  Arkansas  rivers  on  the 
west.     He  did  not  yet,  and  probably  never  did,  comprehend  the 


BASIN  OP  THE  GREAT  LAKES  (1G83'). 
[Sketched  from  the  Parkman  copy  of  a  map  in  the  Archivea  of  the  Marine  at  Paris.] 

river  systems  which  drain  the  mountainous  region  west  of  Caro- 
lina and  Georgia  by  channels  which  feed  the  Ohio  and  urge 
their  waters  on  to  the  Gulf  of  Mexico.  In  a  paper  which  he 
wrote  about  this  time,  given  by  Margry,  he  seems  to  have  known 
of  the  Wabash  as  a  northern  affluent  of  the  Ohio,  but  appar- 
ently confounds  the  Cumberland  and  Tennessee  by  making  them 
a  single  southern  branch. 

Late  in  February,  they  were  at  the  third  Chickasaw  bluff. 
Here  one  of  his  men,  strolling  off,  got  lost  in  the  woods,  and  was 
for  a  while  supposed  to  have  been  carried  off  by  the  Indians. 
They  built  meanwhile  a  stockade  on  the  bluff,  and,  their 
companion  being  at  last  discovered,  it  was  called  after  At  Fort 
him,  Fort  Frudhomme.     They  left  him  in  command 


m 


~  I- 


1 

1 

■  1 

■    1 

'i   ' 

■'.4: 

It 

t  n 


ti 


292 


LA  SALLE,  FRONTENAC,  AND  LA  BARRE. 


March. 
Among  the 
Arkansas. 


March. 
Takes  pos- 
session of 
the  country, 


of  it,  when  they  went  on.  By  the  middle  of  March  (1682)  they 
were  in  the  region  of  the  Arkansas  Indians.  One  day 
they  could  see  nothing  for  a  thick  fog,  when  throuo-li 
it  came  suddenly  from  one  bank  the  cries  of  Indian 
revelry.  Cautiously  paddling  to  the  other  shore,  they  landed, 
and  barricaded  themselves  on  the  river's  edge.  The  fog,  liftino-, 
revealed  to  the  revelers  their  unwonted  visitors.  The  savap-ss 
respected  the  calumet,  and  the  wanderers  coming  among  them 
were  struck  with  the  fine  shapes  of  their  naked  bodies.  They 
tarried  awhile  for  feasts  and  merriments,  in  the  midst  of  which, 
not  forgetting  a  loftier  ambition.  La  Salle  set  up  a  post,  and 
hung  upon  it  the  arms  of  France.  We  have  the  offi- 
cial record  of  the  transaction  (March  14)  in  Margry, 
and  thus  see  how  the  whole  valley  of  the  Mississippi 
was  once  more  mortgaged  to  the  power  of  the  French.  Father 
Membre  erected  a  cross  in  the  village.  "  Though  he  could  not 
speak  their  language,"  says  a  trustful  Catholic,  "  he  succeeded 
in  acquainting  them  with  the  existence  of  the  true  God !  " 

Two  of  the  Indians  offering  themselves  as  guides,  the  party 
Amonpthe  paddlcd  OH  for  thrcc  hundred  more  miles,  and  then 
Taeusas.  landed  to  visit  a  town  of  the  Taensas,  situated  on  a 
neighboring  lagoon.  Tonty  paid  a  visit  of  ceremony  to  the  chief, 
and  found  the  houses^  of  his  people  built  of  sun-burnt  clay,  — 
the  first  they  had  seen.  The  little  native  potentate,  in  returning 
the  civility,  paid  the  Frenchmen  a  visit  with  such  state  as  be- 
fitted a  man  who  could  have  two  bearers  of  white  fans  mareh 
Among  the  before  him.  Passing  on,  they  were  after  a  while  among 
Natchez.  ^.j^^  Natchez.  In  their  ways  of  life  and  worship,  this 
people  impressed  them  more  than  any  tribe  they  had  yet  seen. 
The  French  accounts  speak  of  the  religious  caste  among  them, 
and  of  a  building  which  they  dignified  by  calling  it  a  temple. 
La  Salle  confidently  slept  in  their  village,  and  with  equal  confi- 
dence set  up  another  column  of  French  authority.  On  the  last 
of  March  they  passed  the  mouth  of  Red  River. 

They  were  now  among  a  people  not  so  peaceful,  and  on 

April  2  they  received  a  shower  of  arrows,  but  without 

.disaster.     On  the  ^h  they  found  the  river  dividing 

into  three  channels,  and  separating  their  company  La  Salle  led 

one  party  down  the    westerly  passage,   Tonty  with 

Membr^  and  others  took  the  middle,  while  Dautray 


April.    At 
tacked. 


The  party 
divides. 


82)  they 
One  day 

I  through 
)f  Indian 
Y  landed, 
g,  lifting, 
}  savages 
ong  them 
IS.  They 
of  which, 
post,  and 
the  offi- 
Margry, 
[ississippi 
.  Father 
could  not 
succeeded 
I!" 

the  party 
and  then 
ated  on  a 
the  chief, 
it  clay,  — 
returnins: 
ate  as  he- 
ms march 
lile  among 
I'ship,  this 
I  yet  seen. 
ong  them, 
a  temple. 
jual  confi- 
>n  the  last 

I,  and  on 
it  without 
r  dividing 
,  Salle  led 
Qnty  with 
5  Dautray 


LIMITS   OF  LOUISIANA. 


293 


conducted  the  rest  along  the  most  easterly  current.  Presently 
the  water  grew  from  brackish  to  salt,  and  they  knew  they  were 
apijroaohing  the  sea.    On  the  9th  they  all  reunited,  and 

.,.  PI  1  I  -1  •  1082,  April. 

lust  Within  one  of  the  outlets  they  made  preparations  ceremony 

iipmi  1      at  tlie  mouth 

for  a  ceremony,  long  thought  or.  Ihe  customary  col-  o/tiio  mis- 
uinn  was  set  up,  proclamation  was  made  in  the  name 
of  the  king,  and  France  assumed  the  kind  of  domination  that 
comes  of  such  ceremonies,  over  the  entire  water-shed  pf  the  great 
river.  It  was  a  confirmation  of  the  lesser  claim  which  La 
Salle  had  only  recently  made  among  the  Arkansas,  and  which 
Duluth  had  made  in  the  country  of  the  Siou  x,  —  a  more  defi- 
nite assumption  certainly  than  that  which  St.  Lusson  had  pro- 
claimed in  so  vainglorious  a  fashion  at  the  Sault  8te.  Marie 
eleven  years  before.  The  Vexilla  lierjis  and  Te  Demn  were 
sung  as  usual,  the  notary  drew  up  the  record,  and  a  vast  stretch 
of  territory  passed  into  history  as  Louisiana.  A  leaden  plate, 
with  engraved  testimony  to  the  act,  was  buried  at  the  foot  of 
the  column.  Meinbre  tells  us  that  La  Salle  took  the  latitude 
with  his  astrolabe,  and  the  party  supposed  it  to  be  between 
the  parallels  of  27°  and  28°  ;  but  their  leader  did  not  disclose 
the  exact  position.  They  thought  that  the  Bay  of  Espiritu 
Santo  lay  northeast  of  them,  and  that  vagrant  name  doubtless 
here  meant  the  Bay  of  JVIobile.  The  nearest  settled  post  of 
the  Spaniards  was  thought  to  be  Panuco,  ninety  to  a  hundred 
leagues  to  the  west.  Just  what  was  determined  to  be  the  limit 
of  this  vast  territory  appeared  when  Franqueliu  worked  over  all 
the  evidence,  and  marked  the  extent  in  his  great  map  of  1G84. 
By  this  the  French  claim  was  bounded  by  the  Gulf  of  Li,,,,^, 
Mexico  westward  to  the  Rio  Grande,  thence  north- 
westerly to  the  rather  vague  water-shed  of  what  wo  now  know 
as  the  Rocky  Mountains,  with  an  indefinite  line  along  the  sources 
of  the  upper  Mississippi  and  its  higher  affluents,  bounding  on 
the  height  of  land  which  shut  off  the  valley  of  the  Great  Lakes 
till  the  Appalachians  were  reached.  Following  these  moiui- 
tains  south,  the  line  skirted  the  northern  limits  of  Spanish 
Florida  and  then  turned  to  the  gulf.  Such  dimensions  disclosed 
a  marvelous  domain.  At  the  north,  the  headwaters  of  the 
great  river  were  still  unknown,  and  were  long  to  remain  so. 
They  were  in  a  region  where  the  mean  temperature  of  the  year 
was  40°  Fahrenheit,  and  at  the  gulf  it  was  72°.     This  stretch 


lOf 

Loui»iaua. 


r  i' 


\\ 


h  -.   \ 


J    ■: 


294  LA  SALLE,  FRONTENAC,  AND  LA  BARRE. 

of  twelve  hundred  miles  ran  from  corn  to  oranges,  from  syca- 
mores to  palmettos.  The  flood  that  coursed  this  enormous  ha 
sin  was  one  of  the  world's  largest,  draining  an  area  of  more  than 


FKANQUELIN,  1684. 


[Sketched  from  the  Parkman  copy  of  the  original  (now  lost)  in  the  ArchiTes  of  the  Marinp  at 
Paris.  It  resembles  closely  one  in  the  Ministire  dea  Affaires  Etrangdres  of  similar  title,  Na 
7920.    If  not  by  Franquelin,  it  was  doubtless  made  from  his  drafts.] 


•om  syca- 
riuous  Xvd 
more  tbuu 


THE  MISSISSIPPI  MOUTHS. 


295 


of  the  Marine  nt 
similar  title,  Na 


twelve  hundred  and  fifty  thousand  squaro  miles,  which  sent 
twenty  million  of  millions  cubic  feet  of  water  annually  into  tlio 
sea.    Below  the  Ohio,  the  rise  and  fall  of  the  current  was  forty 

or  fifty  feet. 

La  Salle  had  been  the  first  of  Frenchmen  to  reach  the  mouth 
of  the  great  river,  and  fifty  years  had  passed  since  his  coun- 
trymen on  the  St.  Lawrence  had  begun  to  dream  of  this  mys- 
terious river  and  to  debate  about  its  outlet.  A  paper  which 
Margry  prints  shows  that  La  Salle  was  acquainted  with  the 
narrative  of  De  Soto's  adventures,  opening  to  Spanish  actpuiint- 
ance  the  circuit  of  the  gulf,  a  century  and  a  half  befoi-e. 

After  La  Salle  had  passed  on  to  the  river's  mouth,  through 
forests  of  cypresses  hung  with  moss,  and  when  he  exi)erienced 
what  a  tremulous  ooze  its  swamps  and  bayous  affoixled,  he  foimd 
it  difficult  to  suppose  the  river  which  he  had  coursed  was  the  one 
which  De  Soto  had  known.  This  unbelief  was  further  reason 
for  him  to  suspect  that  another  great  valley  lay  to  the  east  of 
the  Mississippi. 

It  is  rather  striking  that  New  England  Indians,  outcast  by 
their  tribes'  reverses,  and  sent  as  homeless  wanderers  Auency  ot 
to  the  west,  should  have  looked  on  at  this  far-i-each-  uTij  ^uX 
ing  act  upon  the  delta  of  the  Mississippi,  for  by  it  La  ""*• 
Salle  secured  to  France  that  "  Acadian  coast "  as  an  asylum 
for  that  other  luckless  race  of  the  eastern  seaboard  whom  the 
struggle  between  France  and  England  was  destined  to  throw 
upon  its  banks,  seventy-five  years  later. 

At  the  time  of  the  discussion  which  arose  under  the  treaty  of 
1763,  the  fact  of  this  attendance  of  New  England  Indians  in 
La  Salle's  train  was  brought  up  as  indicative  —  but  certainly 
without  proof  —  of  earlier  English  knowledge  of  this  outlet  of 
the  great  valley,  which  had  been  gained  in  company  with  these 
same  Indians.  It  was  alleged  that  in  revenge  for  the  reverses 
at  the  hands  of  the  English  in  the  war  which  drove  them  from 
their  soil,  they  now  led  the  French  to  their  great  discovery  I 

La  Salle  started  to  return  with  gloomy  prospects.    Food  was 
scarce,  and  some  dried  meat  which  they  found  proved  i,,  gaiie 
to  be  human  flesh.   They  put  up  instead  with  alligator  "*'""'*• 
steaks.    They  fought  the  Indians  for  something  to  sustain  them 


I 


290 


L.l  SALLE,  FRONTENAC,  AND  LA  BARRE. 


ji; 


LA   SALLE'S  RETURN. 


297 


7 


i 


i\ 


I 

;5 


«Ut.km'.iW 


in  one  place,  and  barely  e»cap' <1  a  fatal  enoounter  at  another. 
La  Salle  represents  that  as  ho  approached  the  country  of  the 
Arkansas,  he  took  the  west  channel,  where  a  large  island  divided 
the  stream,  because  ho  had  left  some  cquiptn(*iits  on  that  side 
in  going  down.  Here  he  pushed  ahe.i  1  of  the  others,  taking 
two  canoes  with  him.  When  ho  reached  Fort  Prudhomnie, 
he  fell  ill,  and  for  forty  days  his  life  vvua  despaired  of.  Meni- 
lirc  watched  him  tenderly  through  it  all,  while  Tonty  was  sent 
ahead  to  carry  the  news  of  the  discovery.  By  the  end  1^82,  scp. 
of  July,  La  Salle  had  recovered  sufficiently  to  start  |r^"^»tgt^ 
on.  Passing  by  Fort  Miami,  he  rejoined  Tonty  at  St.  '8»»<=*- 
Ignace,  in  September. 

La  Salle  was  still  weak  from  his  illness,  and  he  tells  us  that  he 
was  hardly  himself  for  four  months.  He  might  have  gone  on 
and  carried  the  details  of  his  expedition  to  Quebec,  but  there  was 
need  of  his  returning  to  the  Illinois.  This  necessity  probably 
])rompted  him  to  write  out  what  passes  for  his  official 
report,  preserved  in  the  Archives  of  the  Marine  at 
Paris.  A  Relation  which  rendered  the  narrative  in  the  third 
person,  and  which  Thomassy  was  the  first  to  publish,  has  appar- 
ently a  pretty  close  connection  with  the  paper  in  the  Archives 
of  the  Marine.  It  may  be  that  the  Membre  journal,  as  printed 
in  Le  Cleroq,  is  derived  from  the  same  source.  It  was  first  given 
to  the  English  reader  in  Shea's  Discovery  of  the  Mis8is8ij)pi. 

It  was  not  long  before  Tonty  was  sent  back  to  the  Illinois  to 
found  a  colony,  as  the  best  way  to  secure  and  organize  the  pos- 
session of  the  country.     In  a  letter  which  La  Salle  had  just 
(October,  1682)  dispatched  to  France,  he  had  hinted 
at  an  expedition  which  he  might  vet  make  by  water  usaiie's 

*  .  .  schemes. 

to  the  Gulf  of  Mexico,  so  as  to  establish  a  complemen- 
tal  colony  at  the  mouth  of  the  Mississippi.  The  two  colonies 
would  then  be  in  proper  correlation  to  one  another,  and  trade 
could  be  carried  on  between  these  two  extremes  of  Louisiana, 
and  brought  into  easy  communication  with  France,  —  more  easy 
than  could  be  possible  by  the  uncertain  and  laborious  passage 
by  the  Great  Lakes  and  the  St.  Lawrence,  closed  as  it  was  by  ice 
during  so  large  a  part  of  the  year.  The  proposed  movement  in 
turn  fell  in  with  the  wishes  of  some  in  authority  to  secure  the 
outlet  of  the  great  valley  against  both  the  Spanish  and  the 
English. 


i 
i  , 


fte 


298 


LA  SALLE,  FRONTENAC,  AND  LA  BARliE. 


mM 


<  t!i| 


r 

[!■ 


A  contingency  very  soon  made  it  evident  to  La  Salle  that  his 
presence  was  needed  in  support  of  Tonty's  mission,  for  rumors 
had  reached  him  at  Mackinac  that  the  Iroquois  were  again 
raiding  westward  and  threatening  the  Illinois. 

Frontenae  in  the  last  months  of  his  power  saw  that  his  con- 
trol of  the  Iroquois  was  slipping  from  his  hands.  He  wrote  to 
the  home  government  that  for  ten  years  his  policy  with  the 
Indians  had  been  successful,  but  that  a  military  force  of  some 
five  or  six  hundred  men  was  absolutely  necessary  if  his  control 
was  to  go  on  for  another  ten  years.  There  was  nothing  incensed 
the  confederates  more  than  the  movement  which  La  Salle  was 
making  in  the  Mississippi  valley.  Scarcely  a  French  trader 
could  enter  that  country  and  escape  the  vigilance  of  the  Iro- 
quois. They  even  dared  to  ambush  the  French  canoes  on  Lake 
Iroquois  and  Ontario.  Meanwhile  the  English  allurements  were 
the  English,  growing  Stronger  and  stronger,  and  the  savage  confed- 
erates were  entering  into  mutual  obligations  with  distant  settlers 
of  that  race  in  Maryland. 

The  king  was  fast  losing  patience  with  the  way  in  which 
affairs  in  Canada,  with  a  population  that  had  grown  to 
rising  ten  thousand,  seemed  to  be  going  from  worse  to 
worse.  Her  trade  with  the  West  Indies  had  about 
come  to  a  standstill,  and  home  farming  was  in  no  better  plight. 
If  the  government  distributed  seed,  it  was  left  to  rot,  and  was 
not  planted.  If  the  church  was  paternal,  it  claimed  for  obser- 
vances all  but  about  ninety  days  of  the  growing  season,  which 
was  short  enough  at  the  best.  The  passion  of  the  young  men  for 
the  woods  was  uncontrollable;  and  it  was  estimated  that  at  least 
eight  hundred  youngsters,  fitted  to  till  the  soil,  were  scamper- 
ing wildly  in  the  forests,  doing  good  to  no  one,  and  destroying 
the  regular  channels  of  trade  with  the  Indians.  They  were 
carrying  brandy  to  the  braves  and  debauching  them,  and  the 
law  against  it  could  not  be  enforced.  The  girls  who  -vere  left 
unmarried  in  the  settlements  were  hardly  less  idle,  and  iu>  one 
taught  them  to  weave  or  to  spin. 

His  royal  master  more  than  once  wrote  to  Frontenae  that 
everybody  complained  of  him,  and  none  more  than  the  intend- 
ant.  Affairs  were  no  better  when  Colbert,  who  had  always 
admonished  Duchesneau  as  if  he  were  a  child,  resigned,  and  his 
son  Seignelay  took  charge  of  the  colonial  business.    This  change 


Bad  con- 
dition of 
Canada. 


U.i  ■ 


GOVERNOR  LA  BARRE. 


299 


M 


» that  his 
rumors 
>re  again 

t  his  con- 

wrote  to 

with  the 

of  some 

is  control 

incensed 

Salle  was 

ch  trader 

the  Iro- 

>  on  Lake 

mts  were 

;e  confed- 

nt  settlers 

in  which 
I  grown  to 
1  worse  to 
lad  about 
ter  plight, 
t,  and  was 

for  obser- 
son,  which 
ig  men  for 
lat  at  least 
i  scamper- 
lestroying 
?hey  were 
n,  and  the 
I  ',vere  left 
nd  no  one 

tenac  tliat 
;lie  intend- 
ad  always 
!d,  and  liLs 
his  change 


in  the  ministry  was  not  an  auspicious  one  for  La  Salle  ;  nor  for 
Frontenac,  for  it  gave  new  opportunities  for  crimination  and 
recrimination.  Duchesneau  lost  no  time  in  renewing  his 
charges  against  the  governor.  He  intimated  that  Frontenac 
and  La  Salle  were  conspiring  together  to  keep  up  the  war  be- 
tween the  Iroquois  and  the  Illinois,  in  order  to  further  their 
projects  of  trade.  Frontenac  wrote  to  the  perplexed  monarch 
that  it  was  the  enemies  of  La  Salle  and  the  English  who  were 
instigating  these  savage  hostilities.  In  fact,  there  was  little  to 
choose  between  these  mutual  accusers.  The  fur  trade  had 
always  demoralized  the  whole  people,  and  there  could  be  no 
improvement  so  long  as  the  government  imposed  impracticable 
restraints.  There  was  hardly  a  family  in  Canada  that  was  not 
interested  in  this  illicit  commerce  and  had  not  a  member  in  the 
woods,  and  the  English  traders  at  Albany  were  profiting  from 
it  all.  Nothing  could  be  more  natural,  when,  as  Duchesneau 
informed  the  king,  beaver  was  worth  nearly  double  in  Albany 
what  it  was  in  Quebec.  Frontenac  told  him  much  the  same 
story,  for  he  said  that  the  English  rated  beaver  at  about  a 
third  more  than  the  French,  and  they  counted  the  merchandise 
which  they  used  in  exchange  at  not  more  than  half  the  value  of 
the  French.  With  this  tax,  how  could  Canada  compete  ?  And 
who  could  say  that  even  the  governor  and  his  friends  were  not 
using  their  position  to  trade  with  Albany  ? 

Duchesneau's  remedy  was  to  destroy  their  rival  by  buying  his 
country,  and  he  urged  upon  the  minister  at  home  the  purchase 
both  of  New  England  and  of  Manhattan  and  Orange  (Albany). 
But  it  was  not  left  for  Frontenac  to  deal  with  the  approaching 
questions.  Already,  in  May  (1682),  the  king  had 
conmiissioned  a  new  governor,  and  had  given  him  his   B"'e gov- 

^  °  emor. 

instructions.     These  were  to  make  a  show  of  power  to 

impress  the  Iroquois,  but  to  avoid  a  war  if  possible,  and  by  all 

means  to  preserve  quiet  among  the  Illinois. 

It  was  August,  and  Quebec  was  trying  to  recover  from  the 
horrors  of  a  great  fire  in  the  town,  which,  in  destroy-  Q„ebec 
iiig  fifty-five  houses,  had  swept  away  half  the  property  ''"'^®" 
of  the  colony.  Just  at  this  juncture,  the  new  ruler,  to  replace 
Frontenac,  arrived.  La  Barre  was  a  soldier,  who  had  done  good 
service  against  the  English  in  the  West  Indies,  but  he  was  no 
longer  young  and  agile  in  body  or  mind.     lie  was  sixty  years 


i'l:^ 


!'«■ 


Bill 


'^  i 


'■fll 


I  ;>  I: 


'i  ,i,  ■ 


300 


LA  SALLE,  FRONTENAC,  AND  LA  BARRE. 


'i-    \    : 


\     ! 


H;;: 


MS 


old.  He  had  been  a  lawyer  once,  and  perhaps  that  rendered 
him  timid  in  facing  new  problems  and  taking  responsibilities. 
The  Indians  soon  discovered  that  the  vigor  they  had  been 
accustomed  to  respect  in  Frontenac  was  gone.  The  king  had 
warned  La  Barre  that  he  must  get  on  as  best  he  could  with  tlie 
military  force  already  in  the  colony,  for  he  could  spare  him  no 
more.  The  new  governor  was  soon  appalled  at  what  he  saw 
and  learned,  and  wrote  back  that  it  was  absolutely  necessary  to 
have  an  increase  of  his  force.  In  October,  the  governor  held 
a  council,  and  it  seemed  to  be  the  general  opinion  that  the  Iro- 
quois were  deceiving  the  French  in  order  to  pounce  upon  their 
western  allies.  Frontenac  had  called  the  confederates  "  Chil- 
dren ; "  La  Barre  called  them  "  Brothers,"  after  the  earlier 
cimnge  of  habit.  It  bctokcned  very  well  the  altered  relations 
policy.  \i\i^\  the  savages  which  were  taking  place  perceptibly. 

There  was  no  less  a  change  with  those  who  had  stood  by  the 
government  of  Frontenac.  They  now  found  themselves  cast 
aside,  and  it  was  the  enemies  of  Frontenac  and  of  La  Salle 
who  came  into  power. 

La  Chesnaye,  the  richest  merchant  in  Quebec,  who  just  now 
stood  well  with  all  for  his  generous  bounty  to  those  who  had 
suffered  by  the  fire,  readily  got  the  ear  of  the  new  governor, 
and  poured  into  it  all  the  rumors  which  were  afloat  prejudicial 
to  the  absent  explorer.  La  Salle's  property  at  Cataraqui  was 
after  a  while  seized,  on  the  ground  that  he  had  not  kept  his 
contract  in  maintaining  it.  It  was  not  long  before  La  Barre  was 
throwing  doubt  on  the  pretenses  of  La  Salle  to  discovery,  and 
was  writing  to  the  king  that  the  man  was  doing  his  best  to 
bring  on  an  Iroquois  war.  The  king  had  no  sanguine  hopes  in 
respect  to  western  discovery,  at  the  best.  He  had  told  La  Barre 
that  these  western  efforts  were  not  as  useful  as  was  claimed,  but 
that  he  might  suffer  La  Salle  to  go  on,  just  to  see  what  would 
come  of  it. 

For  seventy  years  and  more,  and  ever  since  Hudson's  explo- 
rations at  the  north  had  disturbed  Champlain  and  his  associates, 
the  French  had  kept  an  eye  upon  the  English  in  the  north,  and 
upon  their  efforts  to  divert  the  Indian  trade.    Without 

French  , 

claims  at  the  discovcry  Or  oocupatiou  the  French  had  in  1G27  pro- 
fessed their  right  as  far  north  as  the  Arctic  circle  by 


; 


HUDSON'S  BAY. 


301 


enderecl 

ibilities. 

id  been 

ing  had 

with  tlie 

him  no 

he  saw 

ssary  to 

nor  held 

the  Iro- 

)on  their 

"Chil- 

e  earlier 

relations 

ceptibly. 

d  by  the 

Ives  cast 

La  Salle 

just  now 
who  had 
governor, 
rejudiciaJ 
'aqui  was 
kept  his 
3an'e  was 
i^ery,  and 
5  best  to 
hopes  in 
La  Barre 
mod,  but 
at  would 


's  explo- 
isociatos, 
»rth,  and 
Without 
G27  pro- 
circle  by 


the  charter  of  the  company  of  the  Hundred  Associates.     They 
now  professed  that   England  recognized  these  boreal  rights 
when  in  the  treaty  of  St.  Germain-en-Laye  in  1633,  Canada  — 
whatever  that  may  mean  —  had  been  restored  to  the  French. 
There  is  no  evidence  that  down  to  16G0  France  had  obtained 
any  knowledge  of  this  northern  region  except  as  the  Indians 
had  described  it.     As  the  result  of  Captain  Gillam's  venture, 
the  English  had  in  1670  laid  claim  to  the  whole  water-shed  of 
the  bay  in  the  charter  of  the  Hudson  Bay  Company.     This 
and  the  earlier  exploration  of  Hudson  were  much  more  than  a 
fair  offset  for  the  paper  claim  of  the  Hundred  Associates.     We 
have  seen  that  Talon  sent  Albanel  by  way  of  the  Saguenay 
to  get  a  glimpse  of  James's  Bay,  in  1672.    Grosseilliers  and  Ra- 
disson,  who  had  been  in  the  English  service  there  a  few  years 
later,  had  found  it  prudent  to  leave  that  service  and  seek  resti- 
tution to  French  favor ;  and  with  the  certificate  that  they  had 
made  their  peace  in  Paris,  th'^y  had  appeared   in  Quebec  in 
1676,  anxious  to  be  recognized,  but  were  not  successful  in  the 
attempt.     While  they  were  still  in  an  enforced  disgrace,  Joliet 
had  been  sent  in  1679  from  Tadoussac,  and  accomplished  the 
feat  of  Albanel  once  again.     It  is  claimed  that  the  English 
tried  to  induce  Joliet  to  join  their  interests,  but  he  proved  faith- 
ful to  his  race.     He  probably  on  his  return  prompted  Duches- 
neau,  in  1681,  to  ask  to  be  allowed  to  undertake  an  expedition  to 
drive  the  English  out.     The  next  year,  1682,  the  Company  of 
the  North,  which  had  been  formed  to  be  some  sort  of  compensa- 
tion for  the  trade  which  was  slipping  into  the  hands  of  the  Eng- 
lish at  the  west,  undertook  to  do  what  Duchesneau  had  urged. 
They  put  two  ships  under  the  command  of  Grosseilliers  and 
Radisson,  who  were  now  restored  to  active  participancy  in  their 
old  field.     The  party  attacked  unexpectedly  the  English  post 
at  Port  Nelson.     The  authorities  on  the  wavering  con- 

_,       ,,   ,  XT     T         »       English  and 

flicts  between  the  French  and  English  at  Hudson  s  French  con. 

t  *  nn  1  IllClS* 

Bay  during  the  rest  of  this  century  are  dirncult  to 
use  with  satisfaction.  The  two  sides  differ  constantly  in  their 
statements,  and  every  effort  is  made  by  each  to  cast  the  stigma  of 
unprovoked  assault  on  the  other  side.  Neither  were  the  French 
the  only  adversaries  which  the  Hudson  Bay  Company  encoun- 
tered. It  had  become  much  the  habit  for  the  New  Englanders 
to  carry  on  an  illicit  trade  there  by  water,  and  the  company  con- 


Ill 


1    I 


^    i 


302 


LA  SALLE,  FRONTENAC,  AND  LA  BARRE. 


\eSfl,  De- 
cember. La 
Balle  and 
Tonty  at 
Starved 
Rock. 


stantly  complained  of  such  "  interlopers."  There  is  no  occasion 
now  to  dwell  upon  the  bewildering  story,  other  than  as  it  has 
some  relation  to  the  schemes  of  discovery  at  the  west.  English 
possession  of  these  northern  rivers,  which  led  up  to  the  sources 
of  those  that  beyond  the  divide  descended  to  the  region  of  the 
Sioux,  affected  the  French  trade  in  that  direction,  and  con- 
trolled French  discovery. 

We  have  seen  that  La  Salle  had  taken  exception  to  the  at- 
tempts of  Duluth  to  open  this  Sioux  country  by  way  of  the 
Illinois  territory,  and  it  was  La  Salle's  eagerness  to  be  sure 
of  maintaining  his  hold  on  the  Illinois  that  made  him  give  up 
his  proposed  visit  to  Fort  Frontenac,  when  he  started 
to  join  Tonty  among  the  Illinois.  It  was  in  Decem- 
ber when  the  two  friends  laid  <uit  the  plan  of  a  strong- 
hold on  the  top  of  what  is  now  known  as  Starved 
Rock  and  named  it  Fort  St.  Louis.  The  place  was  by  nature 
unassailable  except  in  the  rear,  while  the  river  front 
Rock,  Fort  arosc  in  a  beetling  fashion  from  the  water,  and  the 
sides  were  equally  precipitous.  The  summit  was  a 
hundred  and  twenty-five  feet  above  the  plain.  It  was  a  con- 
spicuous feature  in  the  broad  landscape.  Intrenchments  and 
palisades,  the  remains  of  which  were  seen  by  Charlevoix  foity 
years  later,  soon  encircled  the  open  acre  of  the  top.  There 
was  a  neighboring  community  of  savages  who  made  a  busy 
scene.  About  six  thousand  of  the  Illinois  who  had  fled  be- 
fore the  Iroquois  had  returned  to  their  old  homes,  and  their 
numbers  were  incx'easing.  Other  tribes  were  coming  to  settle 
near  at  hand.  The  map  which  Franquelin  made  a  year  or  more 
later  shows  how  the  villages  were  scattered  in  the  vicinity,  and 
the  count  of  the  warriors  which  he  gives  foots  up  about  four 
thousand,  or  an  equivalent,  say,  of  twenty  thousand  souls.  It 
was  this  number  which  was  shortly  afterward  gathered  under 
the  eye  of  the  French  commander.  Upon  this  body  of  friendly 
Indians,  and  upon  their  intercourse  with  more  distant  tribes, 
the  French  depended  for  the  traffic  in  peltries  which  was  to 
support  the  colony,  if,  indeed,  it  could  be  maintained  at  all 
against  the  Iroquois. 

Concerning  the  defense  which  could  be  made  against  those 
confederates.  La  Salle  could  make  some  estimate,  and  he  was 


A  ,;■■     "11 


occasion 
IS  it  has 
English 
3  sources 
n  of  the 
and  con- 


0  the  at- 
ly  of  the 

be  sure 

1  give  up 
e  started 
I  Decem- 
a  strong- 
Starved 

)y  nature 
ver  front 
,  and  the 
it  was  a 
ras  a  con- 
tents and 
oix  forty 
».  There 
3  a  busy 
I  fled  be- 
and  their 
to  settle 
L'  or  more 
inity,  and 
30ut  four 
iouls.  It 
ed  under 
:  friendly 
nt  tribes, 
h  was  to 
3d  at  all 

list  those 
d  he  was 


STARVED  ROCK. 


303 


preparing  for  the  conflict  if  it  should  come  ;  but  the  enemies  he 
had  made  on  the  St.  Lawrence  were  a  force  that  must  yet  dis- 
play itself.  It  was  later  asserted  that  La  Barre  —  whose  su- 
perseding of  Frontenac  had  not  yet  come  to  La  Salle's  know- 
ledge —  had  told  the  Iroquois  to  respect  only  his  own  passes  if 


STARVED  ROCK. 

[After  a  Photograph  taken  by  Bowman,  of  Ottawa,  Illinois,  and  furuiBhed   by  tlie  Rev.  C.  M. 

Stuart,  of  Cliicago.] 

they  encountered  any  French.  Since  La  Salle's  warrant  in  the 
Illinois  country  was  not  dependent  on  the  governor's  passes,  the 
protection  of  the  government  was  in  effect  withdrawn  LaSaiieand 
from  La  Salle,  if  the  story  be  true.  It  is  fair  to  say  ^*  ^'^"^■ 
that  La  Barre  denied  it,  but  not  perhaps  till  some  of  his  own 
traders  had  been  robbed  by  the  Iroquois,  on  the  supposition 
that  they  belonged  to  La  Salle.     The  temptation  to  illicit  trade 


^11 


V' 


IIJ 


■t-m; 


II 


Us 


I    < 


i\ 


804 


LA  SALLE,  FRONTENAC,  AND  LA  BARRE. 


had  proved  too  great  for  any  governor  to  resist.  But  an  act 
which  La  Barre  could  not  deny  was  his  sending  the  Chevalier 
de  Baugis  to  seize  upon  La  Salle's  post  at  the  Rock.  This 
seems  to  have  been  a  part  of  a  scheme  to  control  all  western 
posts  so  as  to  be  prepared  against  any  onset  of  the  Iroquois  in 
the  English  interest.  To  a  similar  end,  at  the  same  time,  Du- 
rantaye  was  sent  with  thirty  men  to  strengthen  the  force  at 
Mackinac.  La  Barre  justified  such  a  movement  against  La 
Salle  on  the  ground  that  his  trading  privileges  were  near  expir- 
ing, and  that  some  responsible  power  should  control  the  exposed 
posts  in  the  Illinois.  He  looked  upon  La  Salle  as  a  debtor  for 
thirty  thousand  crowns,  and  likely  soon  to  fall  into  the  hands  of 
his  creditors.  La  Barre,  meanwhile,  was  writing  to  Seignelay  just 
as  if  he  believed  that  La  Salle's  head  was  turned,  and  that  he 
was  unable  to  control  his  own  men,  —  truth,  doubtless,  in  some 
A  degree.  It  was  just  about  the  same  time,  near  the  1st 
i*^ie  _  of  April  (1683),  that  word  had  reached  La  Salle  of 
Rjrre'ssuc-  the  chaugo  of  powoT  at  Quebec.  He  at  once  wrote 
to  La  Barre  a  propitiatory  and  somewhat  piteous  let- 
ter. He  told  him  that  his  enemies  would  try  to  prejudice  the 
governor's  mind  against  him  ;  that  his  losses  amounted  to  forty 
thousand  crowns ;  that  his  force  was  reduced  to  twenty  men, 
and  that  they  had  only  a  hundred  pounds  of  powder  among 
them.  He  told  him  that  the  Indians  were  coming  in  under 
his  protection,  and  that  he  should  be  obliged  to  send  men  to 
Monti'eal  for  supplies,  and  hoped  they  would  not  be  looked  upon 
as  bushrangers,  but  be  allowed  to  come  and  go ;  for  he  intended 
to  keep  strictly  to  his  instructions  and  trade  with  no  tribe  that 

Early 


Juue. 


was  accustomed  to  go  to  the  old  settlements. 


in  June,  he  again  wrote  to  La  Barre,  complaining  that 
the  men  whom  he  had  sent  down  for  supplies  had  been  detained. 
With  the  Iroquois  skulking  about  him,  munitions  were  neces- 
sary, and  he  hoped  that  La  Barre  would  officially  direct  him  to 
protect  the  Miamis  against  the  confederates,  and  give  him  a 
chance  to  eradicate  from  these  western  Indians  the  belief  tliat  lie 
was  in  reality  abetting  the  Iroquois  in  their  raids.  This  npneal 
was  a  difficult  one  for  La  Barre  to  meet.  He  desired  cLc  west- 
ern In(!ians  should  be  protected,  but  he  did  not  believe^  or  at 
least  did  not  profess  to  believe,  that  La  Salle  had  any  pur- 
pose to  do  it. 


But  an  act 
3  Chevalier 
ock.  This 
all  western 
Iroquois  in 
5  time,  Du- 
le  force  at 
igainst  La 
near  expir- 
he  exposed 
,  debtor  for 
le  hands  of 
ignelay  just 
nd  that  he 
!ss,  in  some 
lear  the  1st 
lia  Salle  of 
once  wrote 
piteous  let- 
ejudice  the 
;ed  to  forty 
wenty  men, 
der  among 
5  in  under 
nd  men  to 
ooked  upon 
le  intended 
[)  tribe  that 
its.  Early 
aining  that 
n  detained, 
were  neces- 
ect  him  to 
2;ive  him  a 
lief  tJiat  he 
This  "pneal 
d  cLc  west- 
ilievej  or  at 
d  any  pur- 


GOVERNOR  DONG  AN. 


305 


Since  the  spring,  the  Senecas  had  been  restless  and  seemed 
to  be  moving  west.  La  Barre's  efforts  to  check  them  by  nego- 
tiation effected  little,  and  he  renewed  his  petition  to  the  king 
for  a  military  force  to  occupy  his  forts  while  his  veterans  took 
the  field.  He  also  appealed  for  farmers  to  till  the  ground  while 
the  experienced  settlers  were  spared  for  a  campaign.  If  the 
English  and  Dutch  were  not  to  capture  all  the  western  trade, 
he  said,  the  Senecas  and  Cayugas  must  be  crushed. 
In  August  (1683),  La  Barre  got  some  of  their  chiefs 
to  come  to  Montreal  for  a  conference,  but  he  could  do  little 
with  them.  They  were  determined,  so  they  said,  that  the  Illi- 
nois should  die ! 

If  this  was  not  encouraging,  the  tidings  which  the  governor 
soon  got  from  the  king  aroused  hope  that  something  active 
could  be  done  in  the  north,  for  he  was  instructed  to  prevent  the 
English  occupancy  of  Hudson's  Bay ;  and  in  pursuance  of  that 
plan  La  Barre  soon  dispatched  Duluth  to  build  a  fort  on  Lake 
Nepigon  and  distribute  presents  to  the  Indians,  so  as  to  check 
the  English  trade  in  that  direction.  To  the  south  it  was  not 
less  encouraging,  for  the  king  informed  him  that 

Txti«i  1  Dongan, 

Thomas  Dongan,  a  colonel  in  the  royal  army,  the  son  Governor  of 
of  an  Irish  baronet,  and  a  Catholic,  had  been  sent  by 
the  English  king  to  New  York  as  governor,  with  instructions 
to  do  nothing  to  disturb  the  interests  of  the  French  in  Canada. 
This  seemed  to  promise  well ;  but  Dongan  proved  a  good  Briton 
despite  all  the  promises,  and  the  authorities  at  Quebec  soon 
learned  that  he  was  not  a  man  to  be  trifled  with.  He  had  more 
faith,  too,  in  what  La  Salle  had  done  than  the  French  them- 
selves, and  perfectly  understood  how  French  settlements  along 
the  river,  "  running  all  along  from  our  lakes  by  the  back  of  Vir- 
ginia and  Carolina  to  the  Bay  of  Mexico,"  might  prove  "  very 
inconvenient  to  the  English."  He  had  not  been  long  in  New 
York  before  he  was  asking  permission  to  send  a  ship  to  dis- 
cover the  river  of  "  Lassal." 

Meanwhile  the  Iroquois  threats  against  the  Illinois  had  not 
come  to  an  outbreak.     Straggling  parties  of  Cayugas  here  and 
there  cut  off  French  or  Indian,  but  nothing  more  alarming  had 
happened.     La  Salle  nurtured  his  hope  of  completing 
his  plans  by  a  voyage  to  the  gulf,  and,  leaving  Tonty  to  leaves  Fort 
deal  with  the  Iroquois  if  they  approached  the  Rock, 


N 


306 


LA  SALLE,  FRONTENAC,  AND  LA  BARRE. 


1  {.;'    i: 


:■-.' 


started  for  Quebec.  In  passing  up  the  east  shore  of  Michigan, 
he  met  De  Baugis  on  the  way  to  Fort  St.  Louis  to  relieve  him  of 
command.  La  Salle  now  comprehended,  for  the  first  time,  tho 
full  effect  of  the  change  which  the  departure  of  Frontenac  had 
occasioned.  He  further  understood  how  it  had  been  deemed 
necessary  to  depose  him  in  order  that  his  presence  among  the 
Illinois  might  not  prove  a  pretense  for  an  Iroquois  attack.  He 
accepted  the  disclosures  with  what  equanimity  he  could,  and  sent 


FORT  ST.   LOUIS  DE  QUEBEC. 
[By  Franquelin,  1683.    From  Suite's  Canadiens-Franfaw,  vol.  ii.] 

word  to  Tonty  to  acquiesce  cheerfully  in  the  new  rule.  He  prob- 
ably learned  at  Mackinac  that  La  Barre  had  already  planned  to 
send  his  own  traders  to  the  Illinois  country,  and  it  was  not  long 
after  that  the  Sieur  de  Beauvais  and  others,  with  such  permits, 
were  passing  over  the  Chicago  portage. 

1683,  Nov.,  This  outcome  of  all  his  efforts  and  trials  had  not 
QuebeJand  Diuch  in  it  to  inspirit  the  weary  dreamer  and  diseov- 
Rocheiie.      ^^.^j,^  ^^^  ^^  j^jg  ^^y  ^^  encountcr  his  creditors.    La 


E. 

f  Michigan, 
iieve  him  of 
8t  time,  the 
)ntenac  had 
Jen  deemed 
>  among  the 
ittack.  He 
Id,  and  sent 


LA  SALLE  IN  FRANCE. 


307 


He  prob- 

planaed  to 

as  not  loiiij 

ch  permits, 

lis  had  not 
and  diseov- 
ditors.    La 


Salle  reached  Quebec  in  November,  and  embarked  for  France. 
On  December  23,  he  landed  at  Rochelle. 

Perhaps  he  gained  new  courage  when  he  found  how  largt 
space  in  the  public  mind  Canada  was  beginning  to  fill.  If  the 
king  had  not  been  much  impressed  with  the  importance  of  La 
Salle's  discoveries,  others  had  been.  It  all  had  served,  says 
Professor  Seeley,  "  to  bring  France  into  the  foremost  of  colonial 
powers."  The  interest  had  in  some  part  arisen  from  the  attrac- 
tions which  Hennepin  was  offering  to  the  ordinary  reader,  since 
the  priest's  first  book,  as  we  have  seen,  was  just  now  creating 
a  lively  influence  in  what  he  had  revealed,  and  the  narrative 
was  rapidly  extending  its  circle  of  readers  by  translations  into 
nearly  all  the  western  languages.  A  cataract  five  hundred  feet 
liigh,  as  his  story  represented  Niagara,  and  of  enormous  volume, 
was  finding  a  place  in  popular  regard  among  the  world's  great 
wonders. 


h 


CHAPTER  XIV. 

LA  SALLE'S  TEXAN  COLONY. 

1684-1687. 


Ml 


It  has  been  supposed  that  La  Salle  on  going  to  France  took 
with  him  the  material  which  he  had  accumulated  for  a  map  of 
his  discoveries.  The  data  had  probably  been  arranged  by 
Franquelin  in  Quebec,  and  we  have,  it  is  supposed,  the  result  a" 
worked  up  by  some  Parisian  cartographer,  in  what  is  known  as 
1684  F  *^®  1684  map  of  Franquelin.  This  productioa  has 
queiin's  already  been  referred  to  as  defining  what  was  then 
understood  to  be  the  bounds  of  Louisiana.  If  it  was 
not  upon  the  representations  of  this  map,  it  must  have  been  on 
such  showing  as  La  Salle  could  make  from  his  own  memoranda, 
that  soon  after  his  arrival  he  was  at  work  framing  a  memorial 
to  the  king,  in  which  he  asked  that  he  might  i  o  allowed  to  con- 
duct an  expedition  by  sea  to  the  mouths  of  the  great 
river  which  he  had  discovered.  It  was  not  an  in- 
opportune moment  for  such  a  petition.  The  relations 
of  France  with  Spain  suggested  a  blow  at  the  Spanish 
domination  in  the  Gulf  of  Mexico,  if  France  could  deal  one. 
There  was,  moreover,  an  attractive  field  for  conquests  in  the 
Spanish  silver  provinces  of  New  Mexico,  which  La  Salle  was 
not  slow  to  point  out  as  a  way  for  France  to  take  revenge  for 
Spanish  insolence  in  the  gulf.  It  would  at  the  same  time  secure 
for  a  dutiful  subject  like  himself  some  recompense  for  his  loyal 
sacrifices.  La  Salle  reminded  Seignelay  also  that  it  was  not  to 
be  forgotten  that  the  expedition  offered  a  great  opportunity  to 
reach  the  heathen,  who  were  already,  as  La  Salle  represented, 
much  incensed  against  the  Spaniards  for  their  treatment  of 
them. 

It  was  not  only  in  generalizations  of  glory  and  Christian  en- 
deavor that  La  Salle  urged  his  plans.     He  entered  into  pavtiou- 


La  Salle 
proposes  ex 
pedition  to 
the  QxiU  of 
Mexico. 


France  took 
or  a  map  of 
rranged  by 
the  result  iv 
is  known  as 
duccioa  has 
it  was  tlieu 
.  If  it  was 
ave  been  on 
aiemoranda, 
a  memorial 
»wed  to  con- 
Df  the  great 
not  an  in- 
he  relations 
the  Spanish 
(I  deal  one. 
tests  in  the 
<a  Salle  was 
revenge  for 
time  secure 
or  his  loyal 
;  was  not  to 
portunity  to 
•epresented, 
eatment  of 

liristian  en- 
nto  partiou- 


PE^ALOSA. 


309 


lars  of  the  way  in  which  he  proposed  to  pi-ooecd.  lie  would 
fortify  the  Colbert  (Mississippi)  sixty  leagues  above  its  moutli, 
where  the  river  could  be  readily  defended  by  Hreships.  He 
could  count,  he  said,  on  Rfteen  thousand  fighting  men  among 
the  river  Indians.  He  asked  for  two  hundred  men  to  accom- 
pany him  from  France,  and  expected  to  pick  uj*  fifty  buccaneers 
at  San  Domingo.  He  could  bring  down  four  thousand  warriors 
from  the  Illinois  country.  He  could  advance  on  the  Spanish 
province  of  New  Biscay  by  the  Seignelay  (Red)  River.  All 
this  he  could  do,  if  only  he  was  allowed  a  vessel  of  thirty  guns, 
with  some  extra  cannon  for  land  use. 

This  plan  curiously  accorded  with  that  of  another  adventurer 
who  had  been  hanging  for  some  time  about  the  French  court. 
La  Salle's  needy  abettor  was  Penalosa,  a  former  Peiiaiosa's 
Spanish  governor  of  New  Mexico,  who  had  his  own  ■=''«"""•• 
reasons  for  wishing  to  get  into  the  good  graces  of  the  French 
government.  To  strengthen  his  pretensions,  he  published  an 
account  of  an  expedition  which  he  pi*ofessed  to  have  made  from 
Santa  F6  to  the  Mississippi.  The  Rio  Bravo,  which  he  named 
as  the  site  of  the  colony  which  he  proposed  in  the  French  in- 
terest, he  and  La  Salle  —  for  they  were  not  long  in  getting  into 
communication  —  evidently  thought  to  be  the  same  stream 
which  La  Salle  had  descended.  It  was  in  January,  1682,  that- 
this  Spanish  rei  gade  had  first  proposed  his  plan,  which  in- 
volved an  attack  on  Panuco,  and  then  a  march  inland.  There 
is  some  reason  to  believe  that  La  Salle  did  not  at  first  heartily 
accede  to  any  joint  arrangement,  and  Parkman  and  others  con- 
tend that  the  peace  with  Spain  which  intervened  prevented  the 
intended  cooperation.  The  subject  is  certainly  surrounded  with 
doubt,  but  Shea  thinks  we  clear  off  all  mists  if  we  allow  the 
joint  scheme  to  have  been  accepted  by  La  Salle  and  forwarded 
by  the  government.  There  is  a  good  deal  which  is  best  under- 
stood in  such  a  solution.  Penalosa  was  now  a  man  of  sixty, 
rather  old  for  untried  adventures,  and  perhaps  not  averse  to 
letting  a  younger  man  like  La  Salle  break  the  way.  It  was 
three  and  twenty  years  since  this  Spanish  adventurer  had  been 
sent  out  to  New  Mexico.  During  his  term  in  office  he  had 
had  differences  with  the  Inquisition,  and  had  fallen  into  their 
net,  from  which  he  did  not  extricate  himself  for  a  long  time. 
When  he  did,  he  went  to  Spain  to  seek  redress,  but  getting 


•■.k^ 


^   .■ 


I « f  u- 


I  ;.  h 


810 


LA   SALLE'S   TEXAN  COLONY. 


1 ,1 


none,  ho  fled  to  France,  in  no  spirit  to  Huffer  longer,  unci  resolved 
to  be  revenged.  In  pushing  Iuh  project  at  this  time,  ht>  did 
not  overlook  the  advantages  which  La  Salle's  ostablishiuents  on 
the  Illinois  might  be  in  the  near  future,  and  he  told  Seignclay 
that  such  benefit  ought  to  be  counted  upon.  All  this  helixul 
La  Salle,  who  at  the  same  time  was  very  likely  instigating  the 
public  reports  that  in  establishing  those  posts  on  the  uppt>r 
Mississii)pi  he  had  not  had  the  support  which  he  deserved  from 
the  authorities  in  Canada. 

These  movements  had  all  the  effect  on  the  king  whirh  La 
Salle  could  hope  for,  and  letters  were  written  to  La  Barn; 
ordering  the  restitution  of  Fort  Frontenac  and  the  Rock  to  Lsi 
i(!84,  Nov.  Salle.  His  lieutenant,  La  Forest,  was  dispatched  in 
Jeliuo**'  April,  1684,  with  such  directions,  being  at  the  same 
L^'sane'"  t""6  instructed  to  receive  the  fort  and  hold  it  for  liis 
iiitererts.  master.  La  Forest  apparently  had  some  hope  that  he 
might  be  later  directed  to  lead  a  force  down  the  Mississippi  to 
cooperate  with  La  Salle,  but  no  such  orders  were  sent. 

When  the  plans  had  ripened.  La  Salle  received  a  new  com- 
mission, by  which  he  was  authorized  to  found  colonies 
in  Louisiana,  and  to  govern  the  vast  territory  from 
Lake  Michigan  to  the  Gulf  of  Mexico.  The  king  did 
his  part  in  ordering-  to  the  service  more  than  La  Salle  had  dared 
to  ask  for,  — one  shij),  the  "  Joly,"  of  thirty-six  guns,  and  another 
of  six  guns,  beside  two  smaller  craft.  By  the  end  of  May,  La 
Salle  was  in  RochellSv  making  ready  for  the  embarkation,  and 
his  agents  were  going  about  the  streets  picking  up  recruits.  lie 
secured  a  force  of  marines,  a  hundred  soldiers,  and  about  two 
hundred  and  eighty  other  persons,  including  women  and  chil- 
dren ;  for  it  was  to  be  a  colony  based  on  family  life,  whatever 
ulterior  purpose  it  was  to  serve  as  a  military  rendezvous. 
Among  the  leaders  of  the  party  we  recognize  an  old  friend  in 
Membre,  and  there  were  other  priests,  not  without  later  fame, 
in  Douay,  and  Leclercq,  the  Etahlissemcnt  de  hi  Foij 
of  the  latter  being  a  book  we  must  often  turn  to  in 
our  study  of  these  times.  Another  Sulpitian  was 
Father  Cavelier ;  a  brother  of  La  Salle,  and  a  fellow 
Rouennaise,  Joutel,  were  also  in  the  company.  We  know  more 
of  the  story  of  the  subsequent  mishaps  from  the  journal  which 
Joutel  kept  of  them. 


La  Balle 
made  gov- 
ernor of 
LouiaiaDO. 


His  com- 
rades : 
Douay, 
Leclercq, 
Cavelier, 
Joutel. 


liEAUJEU  AND  LA   SALLE. 


311 


* 


id  resolved 
me,  he  did 
ihiuentH  on 

Seignelay 
;hi8  helped 
gating  the 

the  upper 
irved  from 

;  whii'h  La 
La  Barr<; 
lock  to  La 
patched  in 
;  the  same 
I  it  for  Ills 
)pe  that  he 
ksissippi  to 
t. 

k  new  coni- 
iid  colonies 
itory  from 
je  king  did 
!  had  dared 
nd  another 
f  May,  La 
cation,  and 
jruits.  He 
about  two 
I  and  eliil- 
j,  whatever 
■endezvous. 
I  frienil  in 
^ater  fame, 
de  I 'I  Foij 
turn  to  in 
pitian  was 
id  a  fellow 
know  more 
rnal  which 


Beaujeu,  a  captain  in  the  royal  navy,  reported  to  take  com- 
mand of  the  |)rinoipal  Hhip,  and  his  position  was  i,„a„j„„,na 
necessarily  such  as  brought  him  int(»  close  companion-  '^  *'»""• 
ship  with  La  Salle.  If  they  had  been  suited  to  one  another, 
Heuujeu  would  not  have  had  for  so  many  years  a  bad  rej)uta- 
tion  with  writer  .  as  an  obstructor  of  La  Salle's  purposes.  The 
documents  whicii  Margry  has  of  late  published  quite  reverse  the 
world's  judgment  of  this  naval  olticer,  and  lead  us  to  believe 
that  he  did  all  that  a  sensible  person  should  do  to  bring  order 
out  of  the  confusion  with  which  such  a  visionary  as  La  Salle 
was  sure  to  swamp  any  business  he  undertook.  Beaujeu,  by 
his  education  as  an  officer,  was  very  likely  exacting  in  the 
requirements  which  he  considered  essential  to  the  proper  order- 
ing of  such  an  undertaking,  and  he  couUl  hardly  avoid  reaching 
the  conclusion  that  La  Salle's  unbusiness-like  ways  were  the 
signs  of  a  wavering  intellect,  —  as  he  did.  It  was  natural  for 
a  vain,  self-contained  man  like  La  Salle,  who  had  no  conception 
of  how  a  well-ordered  experiment  should  be  tried,  to  grow  jeal- 
ous of  any  one  who  showed  superiority  in  method.  So  the 
relations  of  the  naval  connnander  and  the  leader  of  the  expe- 
dition were  strained  from  the  first,  and  we  cannot  but  wish  that 
Beaujeu  had  been  left  to  his  own  head  for  this  venture,  and 
that  La  Salle  had  been  sent  back  to  Canada  with  La  Forest.  - 
As  it  was,  Beaujeu's  position  was  most  trying,  and  nothing  but 
resources  of  tact  on  his  part  carried  the  project  on  at  all.  It 
was  unfortunate  that  the  wife  of  Beaujeu  was  a  confidant  of 
the  Jesuits,  for  this  was  enough  to  disquiet  La  Salle's  mind 
as  to  every  motion  of  the  naval  commander.  So  there  were 
imagined  machinations  of  the  Jesuits  haunting  La  Salle,  and 
causing  distraction  when  he  should  have  been  forming  plans. 
Beaujeu  constantly  complains  that  he  never  knew  where  to  find 
his  associate.  This  seaman  was  a  Norman  himself,  and  he 
thought  he  knew  his  countrymen's  failings.  "  Never  a  Norman 
was  so  much  Norman  as  La  Salle,"  he  said,  "  and  Normans  are 
always  stumbling-blocks."  It  is  curious  to  see  hov/  Margry, 
another  Norman,  in  printing  the  damaging  testimony  against 
La  Salle,  is  anxious  to  break  it^  force  as  much  as  he  can. 

La  Salle  kept  even  from  Beaujeu  the  secret  of  his  destination, 
until  it  became  necessary  to  engage  pilots,  the  result  of  which 
was  that  when  Beaujeu  discovered  he  was  going  to  the  gulf,  he 


',     *! 


■  \ 


m 


Mi 


'.f 


5     il 


I,  J 


f    ^i:!! 


II 

Iri 


' 


m 


:■'  ■  ! 


f '    f 


:,   fh 


^   .   !      i      '   . 


312 


Z,^    SALLE'S    TEXAN  COLONY. 


found  he  had  not  made  all  the  provisions  for  the  voyage  which 
were  necessary. 

Thus  the  period  of  preparation  was  filled  with  vexation  and 
dispute.     At  last,  on  July  18,  just  as  everything  was  nearly 
ready.  La  Salle  wrote  a  final  letter  to  his  mother  in  llouen,  tell- 
ing her  that,  with  four  vessels  and  nearly  four  hundred  men,  he 
was  about  to  sail.     The  fleet  finally   put   to  sea  on 

1C84,  July-       X    1      ^.        1  1  X    1      M  1  1  •         1  1 

August.  The  July  24  ;  but  the  "  J  oly  soon  breaking  her  bowsprit, 
they  had  to  put  back  for  repairs,  and  did  not;  finally 
get  off  till  August  1.  The  counsels  of  the  two  leaders  were 
still  at  variance.  Beaujeu  thought  it  necessary  to  put  in  to 
Madeira  for  water ;  but  La  Salle  opposed  it,  on  the  ground  that 
the  Sp:^niards  might  divine  their  aim.  They  were  two  months 
in  reachiiig  San  Domingo,  and  many  fell  sick  on  board,  incliul- 
ing  La  Salle  himself.  They  were  further  unfortunate  in  liav- 
ing  Spanish  cruisers  capture  the  smaller  vessel  of  their  fleet ; 
and  when  La  Salle  was  informed  of  it,  he  was  still  ill  at  San 
Domingo.  With  the  principal  leader  off  duty,  the  company  on 
the  fleet  fared  badly  in  that  port.  The  men  gave  themselves 
over  to  unrestrained  dissipation,  and  the  more  reckless  among 
them  succumbed  to  the  enticements  of  the  buccaneers  and 
deserted.  Beaujeu  observed  it  all,  but  could  do  little  beyond 
controlling  his  crew.  He  gave  pretty  bad  accounts  of  it  in  his 
letters  which  he  sent  home,  saying  among  other  things  that 
the  Spaniards  had  six  ships  scouring  these  waters,  each  one  of 
which  was  more  than  a  match  for  the  "  Joly." 

On  November  25,  the  expedition  left  San  Domingo,  La  Salle 
November  ^^^  ^^^^  immediate  adherents  shifting  their  quarters 
s^nDr'"  from  the  "Joly"  to  the  "  Aimable,"  the  larger  of 
mingo.  ^jjg  remaining  vessels,  leaving  Beaujeu  in  undisputed 
charge  of  his  own  ship.  The  ships  followed  along  the  south 
December,  ^ide  of  Cuba,  and  were  soon  separated  in  a  fog.  On 
Make  land.  December  28,  a  sailor  at  the  masthead  of  the  "  Aima- 
ble "  saw  land.  They  took  it  to  be  Appalachee  Bay,  throe  hun- 
dred miles  east  of  the  Mississippi,  while  in  reality  the  vessels 
were  a  hundred  miles  west  of  that  river,  and  in  the  neigh- 
borhood of  Atchafalaya  Bay.  It  was  later  believed,  when  it 
became  known  that  La  Salle  had  his  thoughts  upon  the  New 
Biscay  mines,  as  Coxe,  for  instance,  held  in  his  Cai'oldiia,  that 
La  Salle  had  purposely  overshot  the  mouth  of  the  Mississippi 


ON  THE   COAST. 


313 


)yage  which 

exation  and 
was  nearly 
Rouen,  tell- 
recl  men,  he 
b  to  sea  on 
er  bowsprit, 
I  not:  finally 
eaders  were 

0  put  in  to 
ground  that 
two  months 
)ard,  incliul- 
nate  in  hav- 

their  fleet; 

1  ill  at  San 
company  on 
i  themselves 
ildess  among" 
caneers  and 
ittle  beyond 

of  it  in  Ills 
things  that 
each  one  of 

go,  La  Salle 
leir  quarters 
le   larger  of 

undisputed 
ff  the  south 

a  fog.  On 
the  "  Ainia- 
y, three  hun- 
y  the  vessels 
II  the  neigh- 
red,  when  it 
»on  the  New 
irohina^  that 

Mississippi 


It  is  difficult  to  believe  this ;  for  though  he  had  taken  the  lati- 
tude of  the  mouths  of  the  Colbert,  it  was  only  the  merest  guess 
which  he  could  have  made  regarding  their  longitude.  1^35  j,j„„. 
Here,  at  the  beginning  of  the  new  year  (1685),  he  gabiuf  **  "'** 
lay  at  anchor,  hoping  for  the  "  Joly  "  to  appear.     He  ^'^'^'■' 
was  probably  off  the  mouth  of  the  Sabine  River,  with  a  marshy 
stretch  of  shore  in  sight  three  leagues  away.     It  is  not  easy  to 
settle  beyond  doubt  the  landmarks  of  this  cruise  of  La  Salle 
along  the  Texas  coast,  and  investigators  are  not  agreed  in  their 
identifications.     It  was  on  January  6  that  they  discovered  an 
opening,  which  was  very  likely  Galveston  Bay.     La  Salle  did 
not  like  to  enter  it  for  fear  Beaujeu  would  not  discover  him, 
tliough  he  thought  it  was  one  of  the  Mississippi  mouths.     He 
lingered  off  the  shore  for  several  days,  but  the  "  Joly  "  was  not 
seen.     At  last,  siipposing  Beaujeu  must  have  passed  beyond 
him,  he  steered  in  pursuit.     After  a  while  some  Indians  came 
oft',  but  he  could  not  understand  them.     He  saw  breakers  and, 
beyond,  what  appeared  to  be  a  vast  plain  with  buffalo  and  deer 
roving  upon  it.     He  made  a  landing,  and  found  the  country 
barren,  and  lined  with  flats  of  mud.     He  could  find  no  fresh 
water.     The  coast  stretched  south,  and  perhaps  the  best  suppo- 
sition is  that  he  was  near  Matagorda  Island.     A  fog  came  on 
and  he  anchored.     When  it  lifted,  the  "  Joly  "  was  in  sight. 
The  two  leaders  met,  and  charged  each  other  with  the  blame  of 
the  protracted  separation.     Beaujeu  evidently  thought  that  La 
Salle  had  no  conception  where  he  was.     La  Salle  professed  at 
any  rate  to  believe  he  had  struck  another  mouth  of  the  Missis- 
sippi.    He  was  persuaded  that  the  open  water  which  he  had 
seen  at  the  mouths  in  1682  was  what  he  now  found  to  be  la- 
goons, separated   from  the  sea  by   long  stretches  of  narrow, 
sandy  islands,  which  extended  up  and  down  the  coast.     There 
were  delays  on  making  ready  for  landing,  and  Beaujeu  and  La 
Salle  had  continued  disagreements.     It  seems  at  this  time  to 
have  leaked  out  that  La  Salle  had  some  purpose  to  attack  the 
Spaniards,  and  that  Penalosa  was  expected  to  join  him,  after  he 
had  established  his  foothold  on  the  coast.     Cavelier  says  that 
they  did  not  despair  of  this  relief  till  near  the  end  of  the  fol- 
lowing year.    It  is  stated  that  one  of  the  priests  in  the  company 
was  so  disturbed  at  the  idea  of  attacking  his  countrymen  —  for 
the  priest  was  a  Spaniard  —  that  he  withdrew  from  the  expedi- 
tion and  determined  to  return  with  Beaujeu. 


A  *i 


'W'^ 


i, 


II 


314 


LA   SALLE'S   TEXAN  COLONY. 


I  1 


\  i 


:-  f 


fi 


It  was  now  February,  and  Joutel  was  sent  along  the  shore  to 
1685,  Febru-  explore,  siuce  La  Salle  determined  on  disembarking. 
"''^-  The  entrance  to  the  bay,  close  at  hand,  was  difficult  on 

account  of  sandbars,  but  they  marked  out  the  channel  by  sound- 
ing,   and    on    the 
f^-^.  f  20th    the    "Aim- 

able"  raised  an- 
chor and  started  to 
run  in.  La  Salle 
himself  was  on 
shore  watching  the 
Indians  of  the 
neighborhood,  who 
had  proved  unruly. 
He  heard  a  gun, 
and  looking  sea- 
rru  .. .  •       ward  saw 

The  "  Aima- 

bie",  ^       that  the 

wrecked. 

"Amia- 
ble" had  missed 
the  channel  a  n  d 
was  careening  on 
the  sands.  The 
vessel  proved  a 
total  loss,  and  but 
a  part  of  her 
cargo  was  saved. 
La  Salle,  with  his 
disposition  to 
charge  miscar- 
riage upon  some 
one,  insisted  that 
the  vessel  had  been 

purposely  stranded,  in  order  to   embarrass  him.     tloutel  cei- 

tainly  shared  this  opinion  with  him. 

The  "Joly"  and  a  small  messenger  vessel  were  now  all  the 

ships  they  had,  and  it  was  necessary  to  make  some  lodgment 

before  Beaujeu's  time  for  leaving  came.  So  the  company  was 
landed,  and  they  began  to  intrench  a  camp  as  best 
they  could,  for  some  essential  tools  had  been  lost  in 


A  camp  be- 
gun. 


BEAU  J  EL    DEPARTS. 


315 


■^U 


>  >  I 


the  shore  to 
seinbarkiug. 
J  difficult  on 
el  by  sounil- 
nd  on  the 
the  "Ami- 
raised  an- 
id  started  to 
La  Salle 
elf  was  on 
vatehing  the 
ms  of  the 
lorhood,  who 
oved  unrul}'. 
jard  a  gun, 
ooking  sea- 
ward siuv 
that  the 
"  Aima- 
had  missed 
lannel  a  n  d 
areeniiig  on 
ands.  T  h  e 
;1  proved  a 
loss,  and  but 
r t  of  her 
was  saved. 
ille,  with  his 
osition  to 
ge  miscar- 
upon  some 
insisted  that 
sselhad  been 
Joutel  cer- 

!  now  all  the 
tne  lodgment 
company  was 
jaiup  as  best 
been  lost  in 


the  wreek.  Some  defense  was  necessary,  for  the  natives  grew 
more  and  more  troublesome.  The  savages  stole  what  they  could, 
and  even  killed  some  of  the  French.  Disease  was  doing  sad 
work,  and  the  colony  was  soon  burying  five  or  six  a  day.  The 
prowling  foe  fired  the  prairie,  and  La  Salle  feared  for  a  while 
that  the  conflagration  might  approach  his  powder.  They  had 
nothing  but  a  barricade  of  tree  stumps,  which  they  had  picked 
up  on  the  shore,  to  keep  the  devastation  off. 

La  Salle  wished 
Beaujeu  to  take  the 
'^  Joly  "  and  explore 
the  coast  farther,  and 
settle  some  of  their 
geographical  p  r  o  b  - 
lems,  but  that  officer 
said  he  was  not  pro- 
visioned for  any  long 
search,  but  would  go 
to  Martinique  for 
supplies,  if  La  Salle 
thought  best.  For 
some  reason  nothing 
was  done. 

Later  in  February, 
Beaujeu  was  prepar- 
ing to  leave.  Stowed 
in  the  hold  of  the 
"  Joly  "  were  the  can- 
non and  balls,  which 
La  Salle  needed ;  but 
in  the  rolling  sea, 
Beaujeu  declined  to 
risk  10  noving  so  much  ballast,  but  promised  to  do  so  when  he 
could  find  a  quiet  harbor.  On  March  12,  he  sailed,  March. 
taking  with  him  such  as  had  lost  heart.  Among  these  beaujeu  saiu. 
was  Minet,  the  engineer,  who  on  the  voyage  made  a  map,  which 
has  come  down  to  us.  He  placed  the  outlet  of  the  Mississippi 
apparently  at  Matagorda  Bay,  with  the  mouths  as  La  Salle  had 
mapped  them  in  1082,  but  with  also  a  sketch  of  them  according 
to  Minet's  own  observations. 


MINET'S  SKETCH  OF  MATAGORDA   BAY. 
[Key:  1,    Cabanne  fles  Sauvages.    2,  Campe  de  M.  De  U 
Salle.    3,  Where  we  left  Mons.  De  la  Salle.    The  original  iii  in 
the  Archives  at  Paris.] 


. 


' ,  r. 


.»  »is  'Is 
\    .::  I'll! 


w  • 


I  'I 


m 


■     Iv 


310 


LA   SALLE'S   TEXAN  COLONY. 


Beaujeu  intended  to  stop  at  Mobile  Bay  and  get  out  the 
cannon  for  La  Salle ;  but  he  missed  the  opening  and  went  on 
to  France. 


NoT«.  The  sketch  in  the  small  square  shows  the  mouths  of  tlie  Mississippi  "  comme  nous  les 
avons  trouvez."    The  map  shows  it  as  "  Le  Salle  le marque  dans  sa  carte." 

It  was  a  discouraging  prospect  before  La  Salle.  He  had 
written,  only  a  few  days  before,  to  Colbert  that  he  had  reached 
the  western  mouth  of  the  Mississippi,  and  should  soon  begin  the 
ascent.     The  main  channel,  he  supposed,  was  twenty  or  thirty 


get  out  the 
and  went  on 


V3r 


.J^- 


^■> 


"  comme  nous  les 

B.  He  had 
liad  reached 
n  begin  the 
ty  or  thirty 


FORT  Sr.  LOUIS. 


317 


leagues  to  the  east.  He  did  not,  however,  hold  to  this  opinion 
long,  for  he  grew  distrustful  of  his  position,  and  made  up  his 
mind  that  he  must  seek  elsewhere  for  that  stream.  But  first  it 
was  necessary  to  get  into  a  healthier  and  more  defensible  spot ; 
and  &o,  fixing  upon  a  site  for  a  fort  on  a  river  a  little  distance 
up  from  the  head  of  the  bay,  he  constructed,  largely  out  of  the 
wreck  of  the  "  Aimable,"  his  Fort  St.  Louis.  General  port  at. 
J.  S.  Clark,  a  recent  investigator  of  the  topographical  ^°"'*" 
features  of  the  region,  is  confident  that  the  camp  first  occupied 
was  on  Mission  Bay,  near  the  Espiritu  Santo  Bay,  and  that  the 
Fort  St.  Louis  was  on  the  Garcitas  River  five  miles  above  its 
junction  with  Lavaca  Bay,  while  the  adjacent  river  of  that  name 
has  usually  been  considered  the  site  of  the  fort.  General  Clark 
represents  that  the  ground  of  his  supposed  site  still  bore,  at  a 
recent  day,  remains  of  the  fort,  and  was  marked  by  other  relics. 
To  most  inquiriers  the  evidence  has  been  sufficient  that  the 
vicinity  of  Matagorda  Bay  —  and  Espiritu  Santo  is  not  far  off 
—  was  the  scene  of  these  fearful  experiences,  though  Kings- 
ford,  the  latest  historian  of  Canada,  inclines  to  place  them  in 
Galveston  Bay. 

There  were  now  only  a  hundred  and  eighty  souls  left  on 
land  of  all  that  had  started  from  Bochelle.  The  small  crew 
which  navigated  the  little  "  Belle,"  the  sole  vessel  now  remain^ 
ing",  was  additional.     It  was  the  middle  of  July  when 

X        o    11  11  !•  in  1    1685,  July. 

La  Salle  was  able  to  occupy  this  new  stronghold  and 
to  lay  out  his  garden  beds.  The  construction  of  the  fort  had 
severely  tasked  his  weakened  comrades.  They  had  to  cut  trees 
for  the  work  three  miles  away.  They  mounted  some  cannon 
upon  the  palisades;  but  as  their  balls  had  been  lost  in  the 
"  Aimable,"  they  loaded  the  pieces  with  bags  of  bullets.  They 
had  occasionally  to  make  a  demonstration  against  the  hovering 
Lidir.ns,  in  order  to  remind  them  of  the  force  which  was  in  re- 
serve for  any  hostile  act.  Since  Margry  has  printed  Joutel's 
journal  in  full,  we  can  trace  their  daily  doings  with  more 
minuteness  than  the  earlier  published  abridgments  of  it  ren- 
dered possible.  This  somewhat  abridged  and  altered  text, 
edited  by  De  Michel,  was  printed  in  1713  as  Journal  histo- 
riqiie^  accompanied  by  a  map.  The  story  abridged  or  at  full 
length  is  one  of  anxiety,  dread,  and  misery.  Thirty  died  in 
a  short  time,  their  head  carpenter  among  them.     By  the  close 


I    '.In 


v, 


318 


LA   SALLE'S   TEXAN  COLONY. 


of  October,  La  Salle  was  ready  to  set  out  on  an  expedition  of 
1086,  Oct.      discovery.      He  left  Joutel  in  command  of  the  fort, 
with  thirty-four  companions.    He  ordered  the  "  Belle  " 
to  follow  the   shore,  so  that   he  could  communicate 


explor*' 
tioni. 


NoTI.  This  map  by  Joutel  is  reduced  from  tlie  upper  portion  of  tlie  map  in  a  MS.  of  the  nai- 
whioh  the  book  of  1713  was  printed,  and  its  map  engraved.  Mr.  A.  P.  C.  OriiHn,  of  tliat  library, 
verbal  changes,  apparently  made  in  conformity  with  the  requirements  of  the  censor  expressed  iu 
Archives  and  printed  by  Margry)  used  tor  the  press. 

with  her  when  necessary ;  but  he  was  not  always  within  sup- 
porting  distance  of  the  craft,  for  some  of  her  crew,  at  one 


(edition  of 

the  fort, 

i"  Belle" 

(imunicate 


\acln 


'CT'?- 


i^: 


9 


o 


WT~1 


9 


R.  of  the  nar- 
if  tlmt  librarV) 
r  expresseil  in 


thin  sup- 
V,  at  one 


JOUTEVS  MAP. 


319 


pohit,  landed   and  wandered  off  to  meet  their  deaths  at  the 
hand 3  of  Inrking  savages.     It  was  rather  an  aimless  march, 
so  it  seemed.     His  men  wandered,  and  one  of  them,   j,;j,,.,  j^„ 
Duhaut,  appeared  at  the  fort  in  January,  1C8G,  in  a  ""'^• 


rative  which  is  in  the  Boston  Public  Library,  and  is  supposed  to  have  been  the  "  copy  "  from 
says :  "  It  bears  the  autograph  approval  of  the  royal  censor  ;  and  the  printed  book  sliows  some 
a  note  appended  to  the  permission  to  publish."    It  is  very  likely  a  copy  of  the  MS.  (in  the  French 

pitiable  guise.  He  had  lost  the  trail,  and  came  back  to  bring 
Joutel  tidings  of  their  miserable  experiences,  and  of  the  loss  of 


1  J 


ii^t 


;| 

1 

^ 

ii 

1 

' 

■  i  ' 

1 

1 

320 


LA   SALLE'S   TEXAN  COLONY. 


.I'j 


the  seamen  from  the  "  Belle."  Two  months  later,  near  the  end 
March.  La    ^f  March,  La  Salle  himself  returned.     Joutel  espied 

BaUe  returns.    Jjjjjj  g^£^j.  qQ    ^jjg    ^^y    fpoin    ^}^Q    j.Qof    of    his    fort,    a[)- 

proaching  with  seven  or  eight  others.  La  Salle's  story  was  that 
they  had  found  a  river,  which  they  had  supposed  the  Mississippi ; 
and  in  a  palisade  which  they  had  built  on  its  banks,  thej  had 
left  some  men,  —  none  of  them  were  ever  heard  of.  He  had 
detached  a  small  party  on  his  way  back  to  carry  a  message  to 
The"BeUe"  ^^^  "  Bcllc,"  which  had  been  ordered  to  wait  in  a  little 
lost.  jjg^y^     gjjg  ^^g  jjQ^  ^Q  jjg  found  there,  as  the  messen- 

gers reported  when  they  reached  the  fort  the  day  following  La 
Salle's  return. 

This  was  the  severest  stroke  which  fate  had  yet  loveled  at 
the  leader's  plans.  The  little  craft  had  on  board  his  ammuni- 
tion and  his  papers,  and  he  was  depending  on  her  to  transport 
his  colony  to  the  Mississippi,  if  ever  he  could  find  it.  Under 
the  blow  La  Salle  fell  ill ;  but  when  he  recovered  a  little,  — 
he  never  needed  anything  more  than  time  to  restore  his  courage, 
—  he  began  to  cast  about  for  some  plan  of  rescue.  Nothing 
was  so  promising  as  to  get  through,  if  possible,  to  Canada,  and 
send  word  thence  to  France  for  naval  help. 

A  new  party  to  make  the  trial  of  reaching  the  Illinois  coun- 
try' was  now  made  up,  including,  beside  La  Salle,  the  two  priests, 
Cavelier  and  Douay,  and  a  score  of   others.     They 

April.    New  ,  •    .  *        •!  r%n      i     i  i 

futile  at-  started  across  the  prairie  on  April  22,  laden  tlown 
reach  Can-  with  provisious  and  camp  fittings.  Joutel  was  again 
left  in  charge  of  the  fort,  and  a  few  days  later  (May  1) 
he  was  cheered  by  the  arrival  of  six  men  who  had  been  saved 
from  the  wreck  of  the  "  Belle."  It  was  not  long  before  La 
Salle  and  eight  of  his  men  once  more  came  back  to  tell  a  fear- 
ful story  of  suffering  and  disabter.  Death  and  desertion  had 
made  sad  havoc,  and  less  than  half  of  the  company  had  returned 
with  their  leader.  They  reported  having  found  illimitable 
prairies,  with  herds  of  roaming  buffaloes.  They  had  got  five 
horses  of  some  Indians,  which  told  of  trade  or  plunder  eitlier 
among  the  Spaniards  or  the  Comanches,  nearer  neighbors  of 
the  Spanish  posts.  They  had  met  delays  at  broad  rivers,  and, 
finding  their  powder  gone.  La  Salle  had  led  them  back.  The 
colony  was  now  reduced  to  forty-five  souls.  All  hopes  of  suc- 
cor by  sea  were  now  gone.    They  had  watched  in  vain  for  signs 


DEATH  OF  LA   SALLE. 


321 


ar  the  end 
utel  espied 
3  fort,  aj)- 
ry  was  that 
lississippi ; 
i,  thej  had 
,  He  had 
nessage  to 
;  in  a  little 
he  messen- 
lovving"  La 

leveled  at 
s  ammuni- 
)  transport 
it.  Under 
a  little, — 
is  courage, 
Nothing 
anada,  and 

inois  coun- 
wo  priests, 
irs.  They 
,den  down 
was  again 
ir  (May  1) 
jeen  saved 
before  La 
tell  a  fear- 
ertion  had 
i  returned 
illimitable 
d  got  five 
der  eitlier 
ighbors  of 
ivers,  and, 
ack.  The 
les  of  sue- 
1  for  signa 


of  Penalosa,  and  nothing  was  to  be  done  but  to  make  another 
trial  to  reach  the  Mississippi,  and  ascend  to  Canada. 

Again  a  forlorn-hope  was  made  up.  Twenty  men  were  to 
stay  behind.  Those  who  were  to  go  included,  beside  jcg;,  ja„u. 
La  Salle,  his  brother  Cavelier,  Moranget  his  nephew,  auempuo 
Joutel,  Douay  the  friar,  Duhaut  and  his  servant  «"  •">'"'• 
L'Archeveque,  Liotot  the  surgeon,  Heins,  a  German  bucca- 
neer picked  up  at  San  Domingo,  a  boy  of  the  Cavelier  family, 
beside  two  Indians,  one  a  Shawnee,  and  others,  —  seventeen  in 
all.  They  were  a  sorry  set  in  appearance,  clothed  in  draggled 
finery  and  in  such  garments  as  they  could  patch  up  out  of  the 
sails  of  the  "  Belle,"  which  had  been  saved.  It  was  early  in 
January,  1687.  We  follow  their  march  in  the  journal  which 
Joutel  has  left,  —  much  the  best  of  all  the  accounts,  —  and  it  is 
supported  by  the  story  as  Douay  tells  it,  so  far  as  it  goes.  The 
narrative  of  Cavelier  is  confused,  but  he  says  that  La  Salle's 
purpose  was  to  reach  the  Mississippi  and  dispatch  him  (Cave- 
lier) up  to  Canada,  while  the  leader  himself  returned  to  his 
colony.  Their  course  lay  northerly,  in  the  main.  The  horses 
which  they  had  secured  on  the  previous  expedition  now  relieved 
them  of  much  of  the  burden,  and  they  packed  upon  them  a 
bull-hide  boat,  to  use  in  crossing  the  streams.  It  was  the 
hunting  season,  and  they  found  wandering  bands  of  Indians 
everywhere.  It  rained  often,  and  this  forced  them  to  live 
much  in  camp,  and  such  inactivity  conduced  to  discontent 
and  plotting. 

It  was  the  middle  of  March  when  La  Salle  found  himself 
within  a  few  miles  of  a  spot,  on  the  southern  branch  j^g;, 
of  Trinity  River,  where  he  had  concealed  some  corn  ^'■'^'*' 
on  his  pi  ^vious  expedition.  He  sent  a  party  to  recover  it, 
while  he  with  Joutel  and  others  remained  in  camp.  Those  who 
were  sent  found  the  corn  spoiled,  but  they  soon  killed  a  buffalo, 
and  S'  I,  back  for  the  horses  to  take  the  meat  in.  The  nephew 
of  La  Salle  was  in  the  party,  and  in  making  a  division  of  the 
carcass  high  words  had  ai'isen  between  him  and  Duhaut. 
Those  who  sustained  the  latter  now  plotted  to  kill  Moranget,  as 
well  as  the  Shawnee  and  La  Salle's  servant,  who  were  sup- 
porters of  the  nephew.  That  night  the  plot  was  extended,  and 
the  death  of  La  Salle  himself  was  decided  upon.  The  occasion 
soon  offered.     The  party  not  returning.  La  Salle  took  Douay 


iff: 


fc-.',;i: 


^■:;5' 


'■■f 


I!: 


w. 


Uli 


322 


LA   SALLE'S   TEXAN  COLONY. 


La  Salle 
murdered. 


with  him  and  went  to  discover  the  cause.  Approaching-  the  con- 
spirators' camp,  he  fired  his  gun  to  attract  attention,  which  gave 
them  time  to  arrange  an  amhuscade.  L'ArchevSque,  the  ser- 
vant of  Duhaut,  was  placed  as  a  decoy  to  guide  the  approaching 

victim,  who  no  sooner  got  within  close  range  tlian  two 

shots  from  the  tall  -rakes  laid  him  dead.  Duhaut 
called  out  to  Douay  not  to  fly.  The  murderers  stripped  tlie 
body  of  La  Salle,  and  left  it  a  prey  to  the  wolves.  The  shots 
were  fired  by  Duhaut  and  Liotot.  The  latter  had  harbored  a 
revengeful  spirit  ever  since  a  kinsman  among  the  colonists  had 
died,  as  he  thought,  under  the  responsible  act  of  La  Salle. 

Duhaut  was  now  master  of  the  camp,  and  no  one  of  those  not 
implicated  in  the  assassination  knew  what  to  expect.  The  party 
moved  about  under  his  direction  in  a  listless  way,  buying  food 
of  the  Indians  and  feasting  in  their  lodges.  In  their  wander- 
ings they  met  a  Frenchman  who  had  deserted  from  one  of  La 
Salle's  earlier  parties.  They  learned  from  him  that  there  were 
two  other  sych  deserters  in  the  neighborhood.  These  they 
found  living  as  the  savages  did. 

It  was  not  long  before  the  assassins  were  quarreling  with 
Theaasag-  ^ach  otlicr,  Heius,  thn  German,  heading  a  faction 
sins  divide,  against  Duhaut.  When  it  came  to  violence,  Duhaut 
was  struck  down  by  the  German,  and  one  of  the  barbarized 
Frenchmen  killed  Liotot.  This  broke  up  the  party.  Heins 
and  the  six  guilty  ones  divided  the  spoils  with  the  others,  and 
gave  themselves  up  to  a  career  in  the  woods. 

The  party  which  adhered  to  Joutel  were  given  six  horses, 

and  thus  equipped,  they  started  to  find  the  Mississippi 
joutei's        under  the  conduct  of  three  Indian  guides.     It  was  in 

June  when  they  got  started,  with  feelings  of  relief. 
They  went  towards  the  northeast,  found  friendly  reception 
among  such  trilies  as  they  encountered,  and  reached  the  Arkan- 
sas River  not  far  from  its  outlet.  They  saw  on  the  opposite 
bank  a  house  of  European  construction,  with  a  tall  cross  stand- 
ing beside  it.  Its  occupants  discovered  the  wanderers  and  fer- 
ried them  over.  It  seemed  that  Tonty,  reinstated  at  the  Fort 
St.  Louis  of  the  Illinois,  had  heard  of  Beaujeu's  arrival  in 
Tonty'8  France,  and  of  the  tidings  which  he  had  tttkcn  of 
il"saulTn  La  Salle's  landing  and  misfortunes.  This  was  in 
^^  the  autumn  of  1685,  and  in  February,  1686,  he  had 


ig  the  con- 
'hieli  gavo 
e,  the  ser- 
proaching 
I  than  two 
Duhaut 
ipped  the 
The  shots 
arboi'ed  a 
onists  had 
3alle. 
'  those  not 
The  party 
ying  food 
ir  wander- 
one  of  La 
here  were 
hese   they 

eling  with 
a  faction 
!e,  Duhaut 
barbarized 
;y.  Heins 
)thers,  and 

six  horses, 
^lississippi 

It  was  in 
1  of  relief. 

reception 
;he  Arhan- 
B  opposite 
I'oss  stand- 
's and  fer- 
;  the  Fort 
arrival  in 
[  trtken  of 
liis  was  in 
3G,  he  had 


A   DECEITFUL  STORY.  323 

started  with  twenty-five  Frenchmen  and  eleven  Indians  to  do* 
scend  the  river.  In  holy  week  he  reached  its  mouths.  It  was 
a  solitude,  not  broken  by  human  sign  for  thirty  leagues  east  or 
west,  where  he  searched.  Tonty  wrote  a  letter  for  La  Sallo 
and  committed  it  to  an  Indian  chief,  and  fourteen  years  later 
Iberville  found  it  in  the  savage's  hands.  The  dejected  seaix-'her 
now  turned  back.  Six  of  his  men  volunteered  to  stay  with  the 
Arkansas  and  hold  a  post,  and  it  was  two  of  these  who  now 
welcomed  Joutel  and  his  friends,  and  listened  to  their  story, 
which  as  Couture  heard  it  is  rather  unsatisfactorily  set  forth 
in  a  paper  printed  by  Margry. 

On  the  1st  of  August,  Joutel's  party  went  on  once  more,  and, 
passing  into  the  Mississippi,  struggled  slowly  upstream,  bear- 
ing their  sad  story,  just  a  year  after  Tonty,  on  his  return  to  his 
post,  had  communicated  to  the  minister  the  story  of  his  luckless 
efforts  to  succor  La  Salle.  In  September,  they  were  ,,5^7,  a,.,». 
paddling  up  the  quiet  Illinois.  By  the  middle  of  the  *«'"'^'"^- 
month,  they  were  at  the  Rock.  They  were  received  at  the  fort 
by  Bellefovest,  then  in  command,  for  Tonty  had  gone  east  at 
the  summons  of  the  governor,  to  join  an  expedition  against  the 
Senecas.  A  Te  Ueum  was  sung  in  the  chapel,  bi  .c  AUouez,  the 
missionary,  lay  ill  in  the  fort.  Joutel  tells  us  that  this  priest 
was  uneasy  when  they  told  him  that  La  Salle  was  on  his  wa v  to 
join  them,  being  conscious  of  many  efforts  to  thwart  La  Salle's 
purposes,  and  that  it  was  a  fear  of  meeting  one  whom  he  had 
wronged  that  induced  AUouez  shortly  after  to  leave  the  fort. 
It  is  fair  to  add  that  the  Jesuit  writers  deem  such  a  story  an 
injustice  to  a  devoted  missionary,  long  resident  among  the 
Illinois. 

Why  were  AUouez  and  all  the  other  occupants  of  the  fort 
given  to  understand  that  La  Salle  was  still  alive,  and  was  soon 
to  appear  ?  There  is  no  wholly  satisfactory  reason  why  such  a 
misrepresentation  was  practiced.  The  truth  was  not  long  after 
to  be  known,  when  Couture  came  up  the  river  with  the  tale  as 
he  had  learned  it  from  those  who  were  now  falsifying  it<.  par- 
ticulars. The  only  reasons  which  have  been  offered  for  the 
deceit  are  that  Joutel  and  the  rest  dreaded  to  abate  the  joy 
which  their  coming  created ;  that  in  getting  su]>plies  to  go  on, 
they  could  not  have  got  the  same  credit  with  La  Salle  known 
to  be  dead,  and  that  for  La  Salle's  relatives,  at  least,  there 


II! 


ill 


■f  -i 


:'i 


824 


LA   SALLE'S   TEXAN   COLONY. 


1 


Hi: 


were  reasons  why  they  shouhl  get  to  France  in  advance  of  the 
news  of  his  death,  to  secure  some  property  rights. 

Leaving  this  (Ufceitf ul  story  behind  them,  Joutel  and  his  party 
pushed  on  to  Lake  Michigan,  where,  being  overtaken  by  a  gale, 
they  found  it  prudent  to  return  to  the  fort  in  order  to  recover 
for  a  new  start.  In  the  interval,  Tonty  had  come  back,  and 
Morch-  '*'^'  *""'  ^^"'^  kept  in  the  same  ignorance  of  the  truth. 
April,  1088.  jJq  fitted  them  out  with  new  supplies,  and  they  passed 
on  and  reached  Mackinac  in  safety.  Here  some  furs  which 
Cavelier  had  received  from  Tonty  were  sold  on  La  Salle's  ac- 
count. With  the  burning  burden  on  their  conscience,  they  at 
last  embarked  at  Quebec.  The  truth  was  not  disclosed  when 
they  reached  France  in  October,  till  after  a  delay  which  caused 
suspicion ;  and  then  when  the  worst  was  known,  the  king  did 
nothing  to  rescue  the  poor  colony  on  the  gulf  shore.  It  was  at 
last  determined  by  the  government  that  the  murderers  should 
he  ai)prehended  if  they  appeared  in  Canada,  and  such  an  order 
was  sent  to  the  governor  ;  but  no  one  ever  suffered  at  the  hands 
of  the  law. 

The  fate  of  the  colony  is  not  unknown.  The  vessel  which 
the  Si)aniards  had  captured  near  San  Domingo  revealed  to 
them  the  object  of  La  Salle.  During  the  next  three  years, 
four  expeditions  wei*e  sent  by  Spanish  authority  to  discover  the 
French,  but  without  success.  They  surmised  something  of 
disaster  when  they  found  the  wrecks  of  the  "  Aimable "  and 
"  Belle."  It  is  probable  that  one  of  La  Salle's  deserters  finally 
tried  to  destroy  the  colony,  for  an  overland  expedition  from 
Mexico  at  last  discovered  their  fort,  and  this  party  was  thought 
to  be  led  by  a  Frenchman.  It  was  too  late,  however,  for  rescue 
or  revenge.  Three  dead  bodies  lay  on  the  ground.  It  was 
otherwise  a  scene  of  devastation  and  solitude.  A  crowd  of  sav- 
ages hovered  around,  but  gave  no  sign.  A  few  days  later,  two 
men  presented  themselves  to  the  Spanish  force.  They  were  in 
native  guise,  but  proved  to  be  two  of  the  colony,  —  L'Archeveque 
and  GroUet.  This  was  in  May,  1689,  and  according  to  their 
story,  the  remnant  of  the  French  had  been  attacked  three 
months  before  by  Indians,  and  all  were  either  killed  or  carried 
off.  It  has  been  said  that  these  two  Frenchmen  were  sent  ^o 
Spain  and  thrown  into  prison  ;  but  Bandelier  claims  to  liave 
found  in  the  records  of  Santa  Fe  traces  of  L'Archeveque's  later 


ice  of  the 

1  his  party 
l)y  a  j;ule, 
to  recover 
bai^k,  and 
the  truth, 
ey  passed 
irs  wliich 
dalle's  ac- 
e,  tliey  at 
tsed  when 
eh  caused 

king-  did 
It  was  at 
rs  shouhl 

an  order 
the  hands 

sel  which 
vealed  to 
•ee  years, 
cover  the 
jthing  of 
ble"  and 
srs  finally 
ion  from 
i  thought 
or  rescue 
It  was 
fd  of  sav- 
later,  two 
r  were  in 
chevcque 
to  their 
:ed  three 
r  carried 
e  sent  tj 
J  to  liave 
ue's  later 


TONTTS  MEMOIRS. 


825 


career  among  the  Spaniards,  and  says  that  his  descendants  are 
still  living  in  that  region.  The  same  investigator  ailirms  that 
ho  has  discovered  traces  in  the  archives  of  New  Mexico  of  two 
others  of  La  Salle's  colony.  We  learn  from  a  report  of  the 
viceroy  of  New  Spain  that  measures  were  taken  about  105)0  to 
occupy  the  Texan  country  against  the  French,  and  that  missions 
were  established  there  by  the  Spaniards,  who  afterwards  suc- 
ceeded in  rescuing  the  few  survivors  of  the  French  who  were 
found  among  the  native  tribes. 

A  few  years  later  (1693),  when  Tonty  was  living  at  Fort  St. 
Louis,  he  prepared  the  iMcmolrH  relating  to  his  own  and  La 
Salle's  discoveries  which  is  now  accessible  in  the  Margry  col- 
lection. It  is  an  excellent  guide  to  the  historian ;  but  the  sanie 
cannot  be  said  of  the  Dernlercs  Decoiivertcs,  published  in  Paris 
in  1G97,  and  in  the  next  year  in  an  English  version  at  London. 
This  publication  was  charged  upon  Tonty,  but  he  disowned  it, 
and  well  he  might.  Whoever  compiled  it  doubtless  used  the 
memoir  which  Tonty  prepared  in  1693,  but  other  less  trust- 
worthy material  was  embedded  in  it.  The  putting  of  it  together 
was  done  without  close  knowledge  of  the  events,  and  manifests, 
moreover,  no  skill.  With  Tonty's  own  narrative  preserved,  the 
book  has  little  value. 


u 


CHAPTER  XV. 


DENONVILLE   AND   DONGAN. 


1683-1687. 


If 


i\ 


a  'H- 


1G83.    La 
Barre. 


March,  1C8-1. 


With  La  Salle  gone  to  France  and  the  governor's  emissaries 
in  possession  of  what  that  projector  had  left  behind 
him,  La  Barre  closed  the  year  (1683)  with  a  pros- 
pect of  doing  something  ;  at  least,  so  people  thought  before  he 
had  time  to  show  his  timidity.  The  next  year  (1084)  opened 
with  renewed  activity  on  the  part  of  the  Iroquois.  War  par- 
ties of  the  Senecas  were  moving  west,  and  there  were  suspicions 
that  English  packmen  were  following  in  their  rear  and  making 
trade  among  the  Shawnees  and  Choctaws.  By  March, 
some  of  La  Barre's  agents  on  their  way  to  the  Illi- 
nois were  robbed  on  the  Kankakee,  and  before  the  month  was 
over  a  party  of  Senecas  broke  upon  the  Indian  camp  near  the 
Kock,  and  Tonty  and  De  Baugis  woi-ked  together  successfully 
in  defending  their  stronghold  for  nearly  a  week,  before  the 
assailants  retired.  When  La  Barre  heard  of  this,  the  exigency 
seemed  for  a  while  to  arouse  him,  and  he  sent  off  messens>ers  to 
the  upper  lakes  to  ask  his  lieutenants  there  to  come  and  help 
him  punish  the  Senecas  in  their  own  country.  At  the  same 
time  he  wrote  to  Dongan,  asking  him  to  prohibit  the  sale  of 
firearms  to  the  Iroquois.  The  English  governor  reminded  him 
that  the  Iroquois  whom  it  was  proposed  to  chastise  were  Biitish 
subjects,  and  that  he  was  quite  willing  to  make  reconqjcuse  for 
their  misdeeds,  if  the  French  had  any  charges  to  prefer  against 
them. 

If  the  French  armed  the  Illinois,  why  should  not  the  English 
l)ut  guns  in  the  hands  of  the  Iroquois  ?  Dongan  knew  thtit 
English  firearms  were  seen  almost  every wiiere  through  North 
America,  carried  by  these  same  confederates.  He  was  at  this 
time  writing  home  that  the  Iroquois,  having  no  beaver  in  their 


s  emissaries 
left  behind 
vith  a  pros- 
it before  he 
584)  opened 
War  par- 
:'e  suspicions 
and  making- 

By  March, 
r  to  the  Illi- 
!  month  was 
np  near  the 
successfully 
,  before  the 
he  exigency 
lessengers  to 
lie  and  help 
it  the  same 

the  sale  of 
minded  him 
were  British 
ompense  for 
refer  against 

the  En'.'lisli 
knew  that 
rough  North 

was  at  this 
iver  in  their 


MOHAWKS  AND  ONEIDAS. 


327 


own  country,  sent  parties,  both  for  trade  and  war,  as  far  as  the 
northwest  passage,  on  the  one  side,  and  to  the  South  Sea,  — 
wherever  he  supposed  that  to  be,  —  and  even  to  Florida,  on  the 
gulf  side.  Only  recently  Lord  Effingliam  had  come  from  Vir- 
ginia to  make  the  Iroquois  agree  to  spare  thj  frontiers  of  that 
colony,  and  by  treaty  Dongan  himself  had  been  hanging  the 
armorial  bearings  of  the  Duke  of  York  in  the  villages  of  the 


RUINS  OK  THK   INTKNDANTS  PALACE  IX  Ql'El'.EC. 

[OriRinally  built,  1084 ;  reconstructed  nt  ditferent  times,  and  finally  destroyed  in  1T.S5.     After 
a  sketch  in  Lemoine's  Quebec,  Past  and  Present,  p.  lli5.] 

Mohawks  and  Oneidas.  Father  de  Lamberville,  at  this  time, 
writing  from  the  Onondaga  mission  to  La  Bane,  said  that  the 
governor  of  New  York  had  sent  a  shabby  flag  with  the  English 
arms  on  it,  to  be  hoisted  among  the  Mohawks,  but  that  people 
had  shut  it  up  in  their  treasure-box.  Dongan  had  nevertheless 
arranged  with  the  confederacy  to  take  the  country  south  of  Lake 
Erie  under  the  English  protection.  The  (^anadian  intendant 
knew  well  enough  what  all  this  meant,  and  wrote  to  the  king 
that  La  Barre  would  bluster,  but  would  not  fight.     Perhaps 


iv 


328 


DENONVILLE  AND  DONGAN. 


'      i 


m 


some  of  the  lookers-on  thought  differently  when  La  Barre  in 
July  set  out  for  Fort  Frontenac.  The  Jesuits  had  already 
recalled  Father  Milet  from  the  Oneida  country,  where  he  had 
kept  a  mission  for  seventeen  years.  The  governor's  bluster 
ended  as  the  intendant  had  predicted.  The  French  leader 
went  very  peaceably  across  the  lake,  and  accepted  a  truce,  in 
which  the  Senecas  would  not  abate  one  jot  of  their  purpose  to 
destroy  the  western  allies  of  the  French  if  they  could.  This 
was  the  news  which  reached  Niagara  when  Durantaye,  Duluth, 
and  Perrot  arrived  there  with  a  hundred  and  fifty  bushrangers 
and  five  hundred  Indians,  whom  they  had  led  down  from  the 
upper  lakes  for  some  savage  work,  as  La  Barre  had  proposed. 
This  western  rabble  turned  back  indignantly,  and  La  Barre's 
lieutenants  had  no  easy  task  to  hold  them  together. 

In  October,  the  intendant,  who  had  no  confidence  in  the  peo- 
october,  V^^i  could  boast  to  his  government  that  he  had  not 
1684.  misjudged  their  governor.     The  king,  who  was  just 

at  this  time  looking  forward  to  La  Salle's  successes  over  the 
Spaniards  on  the  Mississippi,  was  prompt  to  decide  that  a 
different  leader  must  be  given  to  the  Canadians,  if  the  English 
were  to  be  restrained  on  the  lakes.  Dongan  in  New  York  had 
proved  an  adversary  that  no  common  man  could  wrestle  with, 
and  the  French  were  beginning  to  understand  that  their  move- 
ments beyond  the  mountains  were  now  watched  by  a  man  who 
had  a  decided  western  policy  for  his  government.  It 
was  to  struggle  with  such  a  man  that  Denonville,  in 
the  autumn  of  1685,  came  to  Quebec  as  governor,  fol- 
lowed by  a  fresh  accession  of  troops,  not  all  of  whom,  however, 
survived  the  tumultuous  voyage. 

With  a  vigilant  antagonist  in  New  York,  the  commandant  at 
Quebec  was  not  in  an  enviable  position.  The  town  was  but  a 
nest  of  inflammable  tenements,  and  had  not  a  gate  that  would 
shut.  The  revocation  of  the  Edict  of  Nantes  had  just  taken 
place  (October  18),  and  there  was  no  hope  in  a  resiiseitated 
strength  through  immigration,  while  the  Huguenots  were  instill- 
ing new  and  vigorous  bloocf  throughout  the  English  colonies. 

The  new  governor,  in  the  midst  of  this  condition  of  affairs, 
was  writing  home  of  the  dangers.  He  wanted  Fort  Ftontonao 
strengthened,  the  vessels  on  Ontario  repaired,  and  new  oiios 
put  on  Erie.     "These  precautions,"  he  said,  "are  necessary, 


1685.    De 

nonvillc 

governor. 


THEIR   CHARACTERS. 


329 


a  Barre  in 
lad  already 
ere  he  had 
>i''s  bhister 
nch  leader 
a  truce,  iu 
purpose  to 
3uld.  This 
ye,  Duluth, 
jushrangers 
Tn  from  the 
\  proposed. 
La  Barre's 

s  iu  the  peo- 
he  had  uot 
bo  was  just 
•es  over  the 
cide  that  a 
the  English 
(v  York  had 
vrestle  with, 
their  niove- 
a  man  who 
rnnient.  It 
jnonville,  in 
Dvernor,  fol- 
m,  however, 

imandant  at 
n\  was  but  a 

that  would 

I  just  taken 

resuscitated 

were  instill- 

colonies. 
n  of  affairs, 
t  Ftoutenac 
id  new  ones 
e  necessary, 


if  we  are  to  keep  the  English  from  securing  the  western  fur 
trade." 

It  was  the  belief  in  Canada  that  Dongan  was  inciting  the 
Iroquois  to  further  strife.  He  himself  denied  that  he  Denonviue 
followed  any  clandestine  methods,  and  it  seems  quite  """^^onB*"- 
clear  that  the  French  Jesuits,  who  were  still  among  the  Onon- 
dagas,  did  not  have  any  such  suspicions.  Denonville,  as  a 
devotee  of  the  Jesuits,  may  perhaps  have  known  what  these 
priests  thought.  As  representatives  of  their  respective  royal 
masters,  Denonville  was  far  more  fortunate  than  Dongan.  The 
French  governor  had  behind  him  in  Louis  XIV.  a  potentate 
whose  ambition  he  could  share.  The  timidity  of  James  II.  in 
every  way  in  which  he  was  brought  to  measure  capacity  with 
his  neighbor  across  the  channel  left  his  American  representa- 
tive with  only  the  shadow  of  support.  In  his  own  province, 
Dongan  had  a  population  half  as  large  again  as  that  of  Canada, 
to  say  nothing  of  the  moral  support  of  a  much  larger  prepon- 
de  Hi.  e  of  numbers  in  the  adjacent  English  colonies. 

Jl^  t.\  was  the  only  governor  along  the  Atlantic  slope  who 
wa£  .  istant  source  of  anxiety  to  the  French.  The  Canadians 
knew  that  the  Iroquois  dealt  their  strokes  at  the  Illinois  with 
greater  security  because  these  English  of  New  York  were  their 
allies.  Denonville  felt  that  by  the  instructions  which  Louis  had 
given  him  (March  10,  1685),  it  had  become  his  duty  to  dispell 
the  disquiet  which  La  Barre's  abandonment  of  the  Illinois  had 
occasioned.  He  was  expected  to  show  that  the  power  of  France 
must  and  could  protect  her  Indian  allies. 

The  English  intentions  were  always  a  doubtful  quantity. 
"  We  have  always  the  English  to  warn  us  both  on  the  north 
and  on  the  south,"  said  Duchesneau  a  little  while  before,  "  and 
the  Iroquois  are  a  constant  threat.  Perhaps  we  can  placate  the 
Indians ;  perhaps  destroy  them ;  but  a  great  deal  of  uncertainty 
would  be  cleared  up,  if  we  could  only  buy  the  region  dependent 
on  Albany."  And  this  wish  remained  as  constant  as  the  trouble- 
someness  of  the  English  and  Iroquois.  Denonville  expressed  the 
tiresome  uncertainty  of  the  situation  when  he  declared  it  impos- 
sible to  know  just  what  to  expect  of  a  neighbor  who  was,  as 
he  phrased  it,  both  lawless  and  infidel.  He  could  see  no  remedy 
but  in  an  increase  of  the  Canadian  population,  and  bringing 
into  more  compact   settlements  what  they  already  had.     Tlio 


I- 


^ 


(;■ 


:  I 


I 


I 


ri-. 


.{S\\ 


330 


DENONVILLE  AND  DONGAN. 


U'il 


ll  v^•;| 


!  'J 


i\:>- 


1G80. 


mischief  lay  in  everybody  trying  to  advance  his  little  trading- 
post  into  the  wilderness  to  catch  the  fur  trader  all  the  sooner. 

It  was  clearly  a  part  of  the  English  policy  to  confront  the 
French  traders  at  the  west  wherever  they  could,  and  to  outbid 
them  in  offers  for  the  Indian  fur.  They  even  went  to  Mackinac, 
and  were  known  among  the  Foxes  near  Green  Bay,  and  were 
successful  in  diverting  a  good  deal  of  trade  from  the  French. 
Dongan  did  not  hesitate  to  give  English  passes  to  Freuchmeu 
and  send  them  among  the  Ottawas,  who,  in  the  main,  were 
middlemen  in  the  peltry  trade,  having  few  beaver  in  their  own 
territory.  In  May,  1686,  Denonville  was  complaining 
to  Seignelay  that  French  renegades  were  leading  Eng- 
lish parties  across  Ontario.  This  was  in  defiance  of  the  royal 
order,  issued  in  April,  1684,  which  made  it  death  for  a  Cana- 
dian to  emigrate  to  Albany  or  Manhattan. 

To  frustrate  this  audacity,  the  French  governor  tried  to  inter- 
pose armed  posts  in  their  way.  He  ordered  Duluth  to  tie 
Detroit  River  with  fifty  men,  and  Durantaye  built  a  stockade 
at  the  Chicago  portage.  Nothing  disturbed  Denonville  moie 
than  the  reckless  and  abandoned  dispersement  of  the  woods- 
Bug,,,  men,  —  bandits  he  called  them,  —  who  under  some 
rangers.  organization  might  become  a  help,  but  in  their  lawless- 
ness were  only  a  mischief.  It  was  not  always  they  could  be 
forced  to  offer  resistance  to  an  enemy.  When  by  combination 
they  could  have  protected  the  region  of  their  trade,  their  wanton 
independency  left  the  Iroquois  to  raid  the  country  about  Lake 
Superior  so  effectively  that  the  marts  at  Montreal  were  without 
peltry  from  that  district. 

It  was  to  remedy  this  that  the  government  instituted  some 
active  movements  on  the  one  side  toward  Hudson's  Bay,  and 
on  the  other  toward  the  upper  waters  of  the  Mississippi.  In 
the  last  direction,  they  had  in  the  field  a  vigilant  leadef  in 
Nicolas  Perrot.  He  had  been  in  command  at  Green 
Bay,  and  thence  with  a  small  party  he  struck  across 
the  country  which  Duluth  and  Hennepin  had  traversed, 
and  planted  the  French  flag  on  forts  and  stockades.  He  built 
one  such  post  not  far  from  the  mouth  of  the  Wisconsin,  and 
another  on  the  shores  of  Lake  Pepin.  He  kept  his  ears  oi)cn  for 
reports  of  more  remote  regions,  and  heard  of  a  distant  people  to 
the  west,  who  wore  ornaments  of  stone  in  their  ears  and  noses. 


Nicolas 
Perrot  at 
tliH  west. 


HUDSON'S  BAY. 


331 


ittle  trading:- 
the  sooner. 

confront  the 
nd  to  outbid 
to  Mackinac, 
»ay,  and  were 

the  French. 
3  Frenchmen 
}  main,  were 

in  their  own 
1  complaining 
leading  Eng- 

of  the  royal 

for  a  Cana- 

tried  to  intev- 
uluth  to  tl.e 
lit  a  stockade 
lonville  more 
jf  the  woods- 

under  some 
their  lawlcss- 
hey  could  be 
r  combination 
,  their  wanton 
Y  about  Lake 

were  without 

stituted  some 
)n's  Bay,  and 
ssissippi.  In 
ant  leader  in 
and  at  Green 
struck  across 
liad  traversed, 
3S.  lie  built 
''iscQusin,  and 
I  ears  o\wn  for 
tant  people  to 
irs  and  noses. 


March,  1C85. 


When  he  heard  that  there  were  others  among  them  who  used 
horses  and  looked  like  the  French,  he  knew  them  to  be  the 
Spaniards  of  New  Mexico,  whom  the  French  might  yet  encoun- 
ter in  the  southwest.     Hearing  of  some  lowas  up  the 

,  The  lowus. 

river,  a  tribe  which  the  French  had  not  yet  met  with, 
he  went  to  seek  them.     From  this  direction  there  came  stories 
of  men  in  houses  which  walked  on  the  water,  and  he  knew  that 
the  English  were  still  pressing  their  trade  in  Hudson's  Bay. 
Duluth,  meanwhile,  was  directly  facing  this  impending 

TT     1      1  I  1  M  1.1  ,        DulHthtend- 

danger.     He  had  been  among  the  tribes  which  sought  ihk  toward 

,''-.,-,  ,       °      .    .  ,''  ,      the  north. 

the  English  ot  the  great  bay,  giving  presents,  and  al- 
luring them  to  the  French  posts.     He  had  written  to  Quebec 
that  in  two  years  he  could  break  up  this  English  trade.     At 
last  an  overland  expedition  from  Montreal  set  out  in  March, 
1685,  going  from  the  Ottawa  River,  along  a  route 
which  some  hardy  bushrangers  had  found  the  year 
before.     The  force  was  placed  under  the  command  of  the  Chev- 
alier De  Troyes,  and  with  him,  as  his  lieutenant,  went  T^oyes  and 
Iberville,  an  indomitable  spirit,  in  whom  New  France  Hi'i^iao,'"/*^ 
and  Louisiana  were  to  have  much  confidence  for  some  ""*• 
yeai's  to  come.     Troyes  scoured  the  shores  of  James's  Bay  with 
great   alacrity,  capturing  Forts  Hayes  and  Rupert.     He  com- 
pleted his  round  of  devastation  at  Fort  Albany.     The  Canadian 
Company  of  the  North  had  got  its  revenge  on  the  Hudson  Bay 
Company,  and  it  was  by  no  means  certain  that  this  success  was 
not  as  gratifying  to  the  Catholic  king  of  England  as  to  the 
grand  monarch  himself.    When  the  specious  treaty  of  neutrality 
was  signed  between  the  two  powers  at  Whitehall  (No- 
vember 16,  1686),  Troyes  was  back  in  Quebec.     The  'r>t'>ty  w'- 
few  survivors  of  the  captured  garrisons,  crowded  m  a  imd  hhi 

.  Frnnce. 

single  small  vessel,  entered  English  waters  to  learn 
how  they  had  been  abandoned  by  such  a  peace.  The  Bay  Com- 
pany had  ground  enough  for  redress,  and  petitioned  the  crown ; 
but  as  long  as  Louis  was  keeping  James  on  his  throne,  there 
was  no  remedy.  There  must,  however,  be  some  show  of  resent- 
ment, and  the  French  busied  themselves  with  proving  before  a 
commission  that  the  English  were  but  interlopers  in  the  great 
bay,  and  were  properly  expelled.  The  controversy  ended  as 
might  have  been  expected.  The  French  remained  in  possession 
till  the  vexed  question  of  priority  could  be  settled,  and  the  Eng- 


'V, ;' 


S:;!  ' 


»1'': 


m 


■-4: 'I 


I 


! 


832 


DENONVILLE  AND  DONGAN. 


'1 


lish  king  warned  the  American  colonies  by  a  circular  letter 
(January,  1688)  not  to  mar  the  prosperity  of  the  French  mean- 
while.    The  war  which  followed  the  expulsion  of  James,  the 


.1 


1          1 

B    £>> 

§« 

tw 

ill 

w^^ 

H    fc    = 

o  "^  tc 

JAIL 

pposed 
n  with 

el 

r  .9 
CO  *^ 

ik 

next  year,  threw  this  vast    ^mtory  of  the  north  once  more,  as 
we  shall  see,  iu  the  scales  of      .Atention. 

Meanwhile  this  succesF  under  Troyes  found  a  contrast  less 
pleasant  for  the  French    to  the  south  of  the  St.  Lawrence. 


THE  IROQUOIS. 


333 


Louis  could  bid  the  English  king  to  instruct  Dongan  to  keep 
the  peace,  but  there  was  no  commission  to  be  intrusted  with 
settling  the  question  of  interloping  in  the  Iroquois  Rival  claims 
country ;  indeed,  Denonville  soon  found  that  the  quol'g'co'^. 
documentary  registry  of  the  evidences  of  early  French  *'^^- 
expeditions  to  the  country  south  of  Ontario  was  nowhere  to  be 
discovered  in  the  archives  of  Canada,  and  he  informed  Seigne- 
lay  that  Talon  must  have  taken  such  papers  to  France.  He 
affirmed,  too,  that  Talon  had  carried  off  the  agreement,  signed 
by  the  Iroquois  in  1667,  to  put  themselve  :~'\ej'  the  French 
king's  dominion.  All  this  was  embarrassing  .n  his  correspond- 
ence with  so  wary  a  diplomatist  as  Dongan.  The  best  that 
Denonville  could  do  was  what  Vaudreuil  and  Begon  did  at  a 
later  day,  —  to  search  the  Jestiit  Melations  for  such  unofficial 
records  as  could  be  found  on  going  back  for  forty  years.  Don- 
gan had  something  better  vouched  in  the  various  recorded  trea- 
ties which  the  English  had  made  with  the  Iroquois,  by  which 
they  succeeded  to  their  rights  of  dominion. 

Denonville,  aware  that  he  was  expected  to  make  the  Iroquois 
feel  the  French  power  with  little  delay,  had  soon  discovered 
that  it  took  many  months  to  bring  the  forces  scattered  through- 
out New  France  to  bear  upon  any  one  point.     Durantaye  and 
Duluth,  whose  assistance  was  necessary,  were  too  remote  to  be 
communicated  with  for  any  concerted  action  during  November 
the  next  season,  and  it  was  in  November,  1685,  that  ^^^^- 
the  governor  was  thus  looking  ahead.     The  long  interval,  how- 
ever, could  be  employed  in  provisioning  the  fort  at  Cataraqui 
and  making  needful  preparations.     In  the  spring  of 
1687,  events  were  moving  forward.     The  governor's 
messengers  had  long  since  departed  to  his  lieutenants  in  the 
west ;  and  by  this  time  Dongan,  who  learned  of  the  plan,  had 
warned  the  Iroquois.    It  was  by  no  means  certain,  after  the  dis- 
appointment which  had  been  felt  at  La  Barre's  recusancy,  that 
the  western  Indians  could  be  brought  again  to  the  task.     The 
French  were  pretty  sure  to  have  to  confront,  if  the  confederates 
combined,  about  two  thousand  of  the  best  warriors  that  the  red 
race  could  produce.     These  fighters  were  not  indeed  iroquois 
all  of  the  old  stocks  of  the  confederacy,  for  debauch-  ^™^^^- 
ery  had  checked  their  natural  increase,  and  the  losses  of  num- 


''  'till 

m 

'A 


!••  •■..■,; 

1^.  ■  ^■-\.  I 


!,r:Ji! 


f'lHii 


'hm^- 


;. 


I J 


•'1 


uhni 


334 


DENONVILLE  AND  DONQAN. 


bers  in  their  incessant  wars  had  been  largely  repaired  by  the 
adoption  of  their  prisoners.  But  the  prestige  of  the  Iroquois 
name  was  such  that  the  aliens  grew  to  the  work  imposed  upon 
them.  It  was  supposed  that  about  twelve  hundred  Mohegaus 
could  also  be  brought  against  the  French. 

It  had  been  a  provision  of  the  treaty  of  neu+"ality  between 
Louis  XIV.  and  James  II.  that  the  "oloiiies  should  remain  at 
peace,  however  the  native  tribes  should  be  impelled  to  war. 
Notwithstanding  this,  the  French  government  had  been  sending 
over  more  regular  troops,  and  something  like  sixteen  hundred 
soldiers  were  at  Denonville's  disposal.  He  expected  to  use 
them  largely  in  garrisoning  posts,  while  the  more  experienced 
June  1C87  "^'1^*^^*  wcrc  to  bc  uscd  in  the  campaign.  It  was  June 
Denonville's  13,  1687,  whcH  he  left  Montreal,  at  the  head  of  eicht 

campaign.        -i  i       i  b    " 

hundred  troops,  and  he  found  he  had  two  thousand 
with  him  when  he  reached  Fort  Frontenac.  Here  he  gave  him- 
self to  a  fiendish  act,  and  it  has  been  alleged,  not,  however, 
by  proof  which  the  Catholic  historians  accept,  that  the  bi' '  , 
approved  it.  A  number  of  unoffending  Iroquois  who  were  iu- 
ing  near  the  fort  were  seized  to  prevent  their  sending  tidings 
Iroquois  tor-  across  tlic  lake,  which  act  was  defensible  ;  but  they 
tured.  were  tied  to  stakes  and  tortured  for  the  amusement  of 

the  neighboring  mission  Indians,  which  was  certainly  indefensi- 
ble, even  if  in  dying  they  kissed  the  cross  to  save  their  souls. 

Denonville  had  not  recalled  the  missionary  Lamber- 

ville,  who  was  among  the  Onondagas,  for  fear  of  ex- 
citing suspicion.  This  proceeding  meant  abandoning  him  to  his 
fate.  If  Charlevoix  is  to  be  trusted,  the  Iroquois  took  no 
advantage  of  their  opportunity,  but  suffered  him  to  depart.  lie 
soon  appeared  at  Cataraqui,  to  look  with  horror,  let  us  lioi)c, 
on  the  inhumanity  of  a  higher  race.  It  was  July  4  when  the 
imposing  flotilla  of  four  hundred  canoes  and  bateaux  moved 
away  from  Fort  Frontenac.  Three  days  before,  Denonville  luid 
heard  from  Niagara  —  this  form  of  the  name  was  just  now  com- 
ing into  vogue,  and  was  to  be  made  popular  shortly  after  in  Coro- 
nelli's  map  —  that  the  contingent  from  the  west  for  which  he 

had  hoped  had  reached  that  point.     With  tins  reiii- 

Tonty,  Du-  ^  iii  <•  i'i>i 

lutii,  and  forcement  was  Tonty,  who  had  come  from  the  Ivoek 
joinDenou-    with  sixtccn  Freuch  and  two  hundred  Indians.     lie 

villc* 

had  struck  across  the  country  to  Detroit,  and  there: 


Lamber 
ville. 


red  by  the 
e  Iroquois 
osed  upon 
Mohegaus 

y  between 
remain  at 
id  to  war. 
m  sending 
1  hundred 
ed  to  use 
cperieneed 
fc  was  June 
id  of  eight 
•  thousand 
gave  hini- 

hcwever, 
;he  bi^'  > 
►  were  livi- 
ng tidings 

but  they 
sement  of 
indefensi- 
leir  souls. 

Lamber- 
jar  of  ex- 
lim  to  his 

took  no 
part.    lie 

us  hope, 
when  the 
IX  moved 
iville  had 
now  coni- 
r  in  Coro- 
which  ho 
this  reiu- 
tho*  Ko(!lc 
ans.  IIo 
md  there: 


FORT  FRONTENAC. 


335 


[From  the  London  Magazine,  1758.] 


;f  '■•■ 


■!;i.  i 

ii 


':Mi'. 


■';V& 


ii?' 


'Il;<f 


■V 


'§ 
■'i; 


886 


DENONVILLE  AND  DONGAN. 


I. 


A 


4 


he  had  met  and  joined  Duluth,  coming  with  a  large  body  from 
the  upper  .'akes,and  Durantaye,  who  led  a  forne  from  Mackinac. 
On  Lake  Huron,  their  lieutenants  had  met  un>l  captured  a  trad- 


9    &    it  .§    M  ±^i 


#   #  #'  m  4f'^-^^ 


DENONVILLE'8  MARCH. 
[From  La  Hontan's  Noureaux  Voyages.'\ 


ing  party  of  Dutch  and  English,  who  were  seeking  traffic  luider 
permits  from  Dongan.  On  Lake  Erie,  a  second  party  fell  into 
their  hands.     Their  prisoners  were  sixty  in  all,  and  the  plunder 


THE  SEN  EC  AS  ATTACKED. 


837 


body  from 
Mackinac, 
red  a  trad- 


UtJ^ 


^aUtJ 


affic  under 
ty  fell  into 
be  plunder 


of  their  canoes  was  valuable.    Towards  the  end  of  June,  thoy 
had  all  assembled  at  Niagara,  when  the  word  was  sent  on  to 
Cataraqui.     They  numbered   about  one  hundred   and  eighty 
French,  and  four  hundred  Indians.     By  the  return  of  the  mes- 
senger, they  were  ordered  to  join  Denonvillo  at  Inmdequoit  Bay. 
On  July  10,  these  two  sections  of  the  invading  force,  coming  from 
opposite  directions,  met  at  that  rendezvous,  being  together  not 
far  from  three  thousand  men.     One  day  was  spent  in  building 
a  fort,  in  which  four  hundred  men  were  left  to  protect   jos-,  j„iy. 
their  canoes.     On  July  12,  they  began  their  march  i:i-  cmu.?r>' u>* 
land,  carrying   provisions  for   thirteen  days.     There  *""^"'*" 
were  twenty-two  miles  before  them,  and  on  they  plodded,  Cal- 
lieres  leading  a  vanguard  of  bushrangers  an«l  Indians,  Denon- 
ille  following  with  his  regulars  and  Canadians,  while  a  body  of 
s.  vages  and  a  force  of  white  men  almost  as  savage  brought  up 
the  rear.     The  day  was  one  of  sweltering  heat.     Suddenly  the 
van  found  itself  in  an  ambush  of  three  hundred  Senecas.    There 
was  some  loss  on  both  sides,  for  the  enemy,  unaware  of  the 
nearness  of  the  main  body,  were  over-bold.     The  defenders  at 
last  yielded.     The  French  were  glad  of  a  halt  for  the  night. 
The  next  morning,  the  van  advanced  with  caution,  and  was 
unopposed.     The  Senecas  had  sent  off  their  women,  hid  their 
treasures,  and  burned  their  chief  town.     The  invaders  came  to 
the  blackened  ruins,  and  made  everything  wherever  they  went 
blacker  still.     They  uprooted  gardens  and  cornfields.      They 
leveled  everything  that  stood.     There  were  ten  days  of  havoc, 
but  the  marauders  were  not   spared  a  misery   of  their  own. 
They  ate  immoderately  of  green  corn  and  fresh  pork,  —  for 
the  hogs  of  the  villages  were  running  wild,  —  and   sickened. 
The  wild  riot  maddened  their  Indian  allies,  and  they  scattered 
in  crowds.     On  the  24th,  such  of  the  bewildered  force  Thi>  French 
as  had  kept  together  returned  to  their  canoes.     Re-  '^""'^'' 
embarking  and  coursing  alongshore   to   Niagara,  Denonvillo 
built  there  a  fort  on  the  site  of  the  one  constructed  by  j^^^t  buut  at 
La  Salle.     He  left  the  Chevalier  de  Troyes  with  a  ^'"s"™- 
hundred  men  to  hold  it,  and  then  the  flotilla  started  down  the 
lake,  and  on  August  13  Denonville  was  at  Montreal. 

The  governor  had  inflicted  a  chastisement,  but  only  upon  the 
Senecas.  The  other  tribes  of  the  great  confederacy  were  un- 
hurt.     He  had  done  nothing,  in  fact,  from  which  the  Senecas 


^H  111  ; 


y^  'II 


r  '). ..    I 


i  i 


I.. 

il 


,>:■.! 


-.jliii.. 


.1' 


rhU 


338 


DENONVILLE  AND  DONG  AN. 


m'\ 


thomsolves  could  not  readily  recover.  He  had  killed  but  few 
of  them.  He  had  destroyed  their  villages  and  ruined  their 
crops,  but  their  habitations  were  easily  replaced,  and  English 
corn  was  to  be  had  for  the  asking. 

We  have  Denonville's  own  account  of  these  proceedings.  It 
Dcnonviue*!  ^as  fouud  by  Brodhcad  in  the  Archives  of  the  Marine 
narrative.  ^^  p^ris,  and  Mr.  O.  H.  Marshall  published  it  for  the 
first  time.      It  can   be   supplemented  by  a  variety  of   minor 


IROQUOIS  COUNTRY,  BY  RAFFEIX,  1U88. 
[From  a  map  in  the  Bibllothtxiue  Natiouole  at  Paris.] 


sources,  so  that  we  are  not  at  any  loss  in  telling  the  story. 
Marshall  has  succeeded  best  in  identifying  the  sites  of  the  eaui- 
paign,  and  he  places  them  by  his  map  near  the  modern  town  of 
Victor. 

It  was  on  his  return  to  the  Rock,  on  October  27,  1G87,  that 
if.87,  October  Tonty  met  Joutel  and  heard  the  false  stories  about  La 
ba"k\o'the  Sallc.  A  fcw  wcfik.s  later,  when  Couture  came  up  the 
?p°'cen!i"the  Fiver  and  Tonty  learned  the  truth,  he  started  down 
Mississippi.     ^Q  ^jjQ  g^,j£  ^j^jj  g^g  Frenchmen  and  three  Indians, 

to  do  what  he  could  to  rescue  the  poor  lingerers  at  the  Texan 
fort.  He  was  not  without  some  hope,  too,  of  banding  the 
river  tribes  and  attacking  the  Spaniards ;  for  Couture  had  sug- 
gested the  practicability  of  doing  so,  and  the  plan  had  a  certiiin 


rilE  (iENKSEE  COUNTRY. 


830 


I  but  few 

ned  their 

English 

iings.  It 
le  Marine 
it  for  the 
of   iniuur 


m 


1 


i«, 


.i 

he  story, 
the  caiu- 
1  town  of 

G87,  that 
about  La 
le  up  the 
;ecl  down 
Indians, 
16  Texan 
ding  the 
had  sug- 
a  certain 


opportuneness  in  it,  Hince  he  had  just  heard  from  Denonvillo 
of  war  with  Spain  being  declared.     It  was  early  in  December 


of  tliat  port  of  the 

9ENSSEE  COUNTBY, 

/nvat/ttif  Ay 
;^^  THE  MAII9UIS    OC    NONVIUC. 


[A  section  of  the  map  given  in  0.  H.  Marslmll's  Historical  Writings.  Tlie  dash-and-dot  line  is 
Denonville's  route ;  tlie  dash  lines  'bow  Indian  paths.  A,  Indian  Ashing  station.  B,  C,  M,  A', 
tlie  four  principal  Seneca  villages.    />,  Indian  village.     T,  the  fort.] 

when  Tonty  left  his  fort.  Late  in  March  (1689),  he  was  at  the 
lied  River.  Here  ho  got  tidings,  as  he  thought,  of  Heins,  one 
of  La  Salle's  conspirators,  and  resolved  to  find  him  if  he  could. 


1^ 

( 

1 

ll  , 

1 

f  ' 

"1 

'l\in 


340 


DENONVILLE  AND  DONGAN. 


.^ 


,». 


'."i* 

«♦?. 


His  men  revolted,  and  only  two  would  accompany  him  further. 
He  lost  his  powder  while  crossing  a  river,  and  when  he  reached 
the  village  that  he  sought,  he  found  nothing  of  the  German, 
but  suspected  by  the  bearing  of  the  Indians  that  they  had 
killed  him. 

Tonty  had  no  courage,  perhaps  no  strength,  for  further  trial. 
HiB  life  as  a  He  tumcd  his  canoe  upstream,  and  after  many  tribu- 
trader.  latious  reached  his  Illinois  fort.  The  next  year,  in 
consideration  of  his  unselfish  services,  a  royal  grant  made  him 
master  of  his  stronghold,  and  he  lived  on  there  for  a  dozen 
years,  trading  with  the  Indians  who  came  to  the  post.  The 
government  regarded  him  kindly,  and  when  it  stopped  other 
unofficial  trading,  it  suffered  his  to  go  on ;  and  year  by  year 
two  of  his  canoes  and  twelve  men  brought  his  peltry  to  a 
market  as  long  as  the  fortress  on  the  Rock  was  permitted  to 
exist.  In  1702,  a  royal  order  caused  it  to  be  abandoned,  and 
Tonty  sought  Iberville  at  the  mouth  of  the  Mississippi. 


h  I  \  ■ 


f 


i 


m  further. 

he  reached 

e  German, 

they  had 

ther  trial, 
lany  tribu- 
xt  year,  in 
made  him 
r  a  dozen 
)ost.  The 
)ped  other 
ar  by  year 
leltry  to  a 
rmitted  to 
loned,  and 
)i. 


CHAPTER  XVI. 

FRONTENAC   RECALLED. 

1687-1698. 

It  was  said  at  the  time  that  in  his  devastation  of  the  Seneca 
country,  Denonville  had  destroyed  the  wasps'  nest, 
but  the   wasps  were  unharmed.     As  always  results  idationin 

*  ,  .  .  Canada. 

from  such  a  success,  the  victorious  party  was  more 
alarmed  than  the  beaten  one.  There  was  trepidation  through- 
out the  St.  Lawrence  settlements.  The  noise  of  axe  and  beetle 
betrayed  the  work  of  palisading  on  every  hand.  There  was 
a  cessation  of  the  fur  trade,  for  the  prowling  Senecas  were  too 
numerous  to  be  evaded. 

On  the  other  hand,  Dongan  was  not  intimidated,  but  he  was 
anxious.     He  had  promptly  protested  against  the  occupation  of 
Niagara,  —  Onygaro  as  he  called  it,  — and  was  not  quite  sufe 
but  some  movement  against  Albany  was  hatching  in  Quebec. 
There  was  ground  for  the  suspicion,  for  Callieres  was  Anxiety  in 
sent  to  Paris  to  present  a  project  of   invading  New    New  York. 
York  by  way  of  Lake  Champlain  and  capturing  Manhattan,  a 
scheme  that  always  came  to  the  minds  of  the  Canadian  leaders 
when  matters  grew  unbearable.     Thv'jre  were  French  spies  in 
Albany  that  were  not  easy  to  discover ;  but  Dongan  expelled 
the  Jesuits  from  the  Iroquois  villages,  and  stopped 
any  revelations  through  that  source.     In  November, 
(1687),  it  seemed  as  if  there  was  to  be  an  end  to  the  prevari- 
cations of  the  English  king,  when  word  reached  Dongan  that 
he  must  protect  the  Iroquois  against  any  repetition  of  the  re- 
cent raid ;  but  the  feeling  that  some  sort  of  a  stand  could  at 
last  be  made  did  not  continue  long.     James  yielding  Dongan  re- 
to  the  exactions  of  Louis,  Dongan  was  recalled,  and  ''*"®'^" 
the  English  colonists  were  deprived  of  the  ablest  leader  they 
had  had  in  their  contention  with  the  French.     This  was  some 


!^ 


't| 


ll'l 

Hi' 


i'  1 


342 


FRONTENAC  RECALLED. 


{% 


relief  to  Denonville,  but  he  was  not  so  content  with  the  ru- 
mors which  came  from  the  west.  The  old  antipathy  against 
La  Salle  was  perpetuated  in  the  suspicion  entertained  of  his 
successors,  and  Denonville  was  by  no  means  sure  that  mischief 
was  not  brewing  in  the  Illinois  country.  He  feared  that  the 
young  men  in  Tonty's  company  valued  the  profits  of  trade  more 
than  loyalty  to  France,  and  that  they  only  awaited  an  oppor- 
tunity to  carry  their  interests  over  to  the  English.  Denon- 
ville's  recommendation  to  the  home  government  was  to  change 
the  governor  in  that  region  often  enough  to  prevent  the  ripen- 
ing of  any  mischievous  plot. 

Sir  Edmund  Andros,  with  more  extensive  power,  covering 
Sir  Edmund  ^^^  England  as  well  as  New  York,  succeeded  Don- 
Andros.  gg^j^  jjg  ^^^^  ^^^^  made  to  understand  that  the  Eng- 
lish king  had  constituted  the  Five  Nations  as  a  part  of  his 
subjects.  It  was  a  renewed  instance  of  playing  fast  and  loose 
on  James's  part.  Andros  was  quite  of  Dongan's  spirit,  and  he 
had  forbidden  the  Iroquois  to  yield  to  the  temptations  which 
the  French  were  offering,  under  what  they  evidently  Apposed 
were  better  chances  of  success,  now  that  Dongan  had  gone.  To 
accept  some  advantage  from  the  Iroquois,  the  Canadians  proved 
willing  to  abandon  the  Illinois  once  more.  They  were  ready  to 
cause  even  the  destruction  of  Fort  St.  Joseph  in  order  to  ap- 
pease the  confederates. 

The  sacrifice  was  premature,  for  on  July  14,  1689,  the  flight 

of  James  II.  from  England  was  known  in  Quebec, 

The  English  and  thcrc  was  an  end  of  French  influence  at  the  Eng- 

re  volution  ,  " 

known  in       hsh  court.      Vt  nv  bctwecn  the  two  countries  was  cer- 

Quebec. 

tain.  Perrot  had  already  been  ordered  to  the  western 
country,  and  in  the  autu\na  of  1688  he  had  passed  with  forty 
men,  by  Green  Bay  and  the  Fox  River,  into  the  region 
Perrot  at  the  bordering  upon  the  upper  Mississippi.  On  the  8th  of 
May  (^1689),  on  the  Wisconsin  side  of  Lake  Pepin, 
he  emjihasized  the  French  claim  to  the  possession  of  all  this 
region  watered  by  the  St.  Croix,  St.  Peter,  and  the  other  afflu- 
ents of  the  great  river,  and  took  formal  occupation, 
under  the  observation  of  a  notary.  Pierre  le.  Sueur, 
whose  name  had  been  associated  since  1683  with  the  early  ex- 
plorations on  the  upper  Mississippi  and  in  the  present  Minne- 
sota, was  with  him  at  the  time. 


Pierre  le 
Sueur. 


ith  the  ru- 

hy  against 

ined  of  his 

it  mischief 

;d  that  the 

trade  more 

an  oppor- 

1.     Denon- 

to  change 

the  ripen- 

r,  covering 
seded  Don- 
it  the  Eng- 
jart  of  his 
b  and  loose 
irit,  and  he 
:ions  which 
y  ^ipposed 
I  gone.  To 
ans  proved 
pe  ready  to 
cder  to  ap- 

the  flight 

n  Quebec, 

,t  the  Eng- 

js  was  cer- 

he  western 

with  forty 

the  region 

the  8th  of 

ake  Pepin, 

of  all  this 

lier  afflu- 

(ccupation, 

le.  Sueur, 

e  early  ex- 

mt  Minne- 


L  A  CHINE   ATTACKED. 


34:J 


At  this  period,  when  England  exerted  herself  to  secure  a 
Protestant  succc  -^'^n,  and  France  was  under  the  most  imperial 
of  her  kings,  iu  +'ie  greatest  amplitude  of  his  powers,  a  politi- 
cal prophet,  as  Professor  Seeley  says  in  his  A\>j)anHiott  of 
England,  comparing  the  prospects  of  these  two  colonizing 
powers,  might  have  been  led,  by  observing  what  an  advantage 
the  possession  of  the  St.  Lawrence  and  the  Alississi})pi  Fieneii  ana 
valley  gave  to  France,  to  think  that  in  the  future  gcJ.f ,'^eg  „„j 
North  America  would  belong  rather  to  her  than  to  I'^^i""^*"- 
England,  notwithstanding  there  were  but  about  twelve  thousand 
Frenchmen  on  the  continent,  to  something  like  two  hundred 
thousand  English.  La  Salle  had,  it  is  true,  failed  at  the  mouth 
of  the  great  river,  but  there  was  no  one  as  yet  to  dispute 
the  French  sway  along  its  banks.  There  had  been  danger  at 
the  north,  but  Duluth,  Perrot,  and  Tonty  were  vigilant.  The 
English,  indeed,  had  threatened  to  extend  their  influence  from 
Hudson's  Bay  by  the  attractions  of  trade  rather  than  by  occu- 
pying the  soil.  It  was  a  struggle  in  which  English  mercantile 
thrift  was  set  against  the  flexible  adaptability  to  circumstances 
which  characterized  the  French  intercourse  with  the  natives. 
The  greater  sui)eriority  of  the  English  as  colonists  has  usually 
been  recognized  by  the  French  themselves,  unless  they  limited 
the  sphere  of  colonization  to  the  pioneer  work  of  the  bush- 
ranger, as  Kameau  has  done  in  comparing  the  two.  At  this 
very  time  a  memorial  was  presented  to  Seignelay,  setting  forth 
the  instability  of  trade  and  fur-hunting  in  comparison  with  the 
tilling  of  the  soil,  as  conducing  to  colonial  ])rosperity. 

But  the  chief  danger  to  the  French  lay  nearer  their  main 
settlements,  ;uid  did  not  diminiah  till  the  Iroquois,  ten  or  fifteen 
years  later,  began  to  lose  their  ju'cstige.  The  revenge  for  the 
devastation  of  the  Senecas  came  suddenly,  when  a  failure  iu  in- 
vesting Fort  Frontenac  set  fourteen  or  fifteen  hun-  loss,  au- 
dred  of  the  confederates  free  to  fall  (August,  4,  5,  X^',; 
1689)  upon  the  settlement  at  Lachine.  Death  or  caj)- 
ture  came  to  three  or  four  hundred  unprepared  victims.  The 
suddenness  of  the  attack  seemed  to  i)aralyze  Dcjionville,  since 
he  countermanded  orders  for  pursuit,  when  Subercase,  who  had 
reached  the  scene  from  Montreal,  was  ])re])ared  to  hunt  \\w 
assailants  down.  Dr.  Shea  does  not  doubt  English  coniplicity 
in  this  movement  of  the  Iroquois ;    and  why  should  he,  when 


La- 

liiiit<  at- 
tiiokoj. 


n  'ti 


m 


i  .4 


344 


FRONTENAC  RECALLED. 


French  and  English  were  as  barbarous  as  their  savage  depen- 
dants ?  There  is  little  doubt  that  Governor  Leisler  of  New 
York  had  prompted  them  to  the  futile  effort  to  capture  Fort 
Frontenac.  If  they  failed  in  this,  they  succeeded  in  luring 
Father  Milet  out  of  the  stronghold,  and  ran  him  off  to  the 


^\\ 


I  i 


V   i 


FRANQUELIN,   1C88. 


Oneida  country.  We  have  his  own  account  of  his  captivity, 
and  the  English  at  Albany  did  not  profit  much  in  the  face  of 
the  influence  which  he  acquired  in  the  savage  councils.  ' 

It  had  earlier  become  apparent  that  if  there  was  to  be  open 
war  along  the  frontiers,  the  French  needed  a  better  leader  than 


je  depen- 
•  of  New 
bure  Fort 
in  luring 
iff  to  the 


captivity, 
le  face  of 

0  be  open 
ader  than 


CORONELLI  AND   TILLEMON. 


345 


Denonville.     Consequently  there  was  general  acquiescence  in 
the  wisdom  of  the  choice  when  Frontenac  came  back 


1G89. 


to  his  old  post.     His  remembered  career  gave  ground  Froiltenac 
for  hope,  and  the  necessity  for  a  man  of  his  indomita- 
ble courage  and  unfailing  resources  had  induced  the  king  to 


O 

H 

O 

r 

W 

r 

c 

w 

55 

S 

a 

c 

r 

2 

r 

- 

> 

00 

&! 

c 

forget  all  the  charges  which  had  compelled  his  recall  seven 
years  before.  Frontenac  did  not  disappoint  expectation,  though 
he  was  now  a  man  of  threescore  and  ten. 

His  instructions,  which  were  dated  June  7,  1G89,  had  made 
it  imperative  on  him  to  attempt  two  things,  —  the  expulsion  of 


W'm 


I 


1-     hi 


I' 


I 
1 


^^ 


K 


t    I 


P." 


H-ii;:. 


t    ■   ; 


iv 


n'M    il-:' 


,    )   ■  : 

1 

^^ 

310 


FRONTENAC  RECALLED. 


S    w    cy     . 

«       S       !=<       S 

fe    J   ^    " 


I  •  !   i   .' 


%      I 


,,A'^-' 


m 


^ 


r 


::^-'. 


'!)?' 


Miiinim 


RAFFEIX'S  MAP. 


347 


the  English  from  Hudson's  Bay,  and  the  capture  of  New  York. 
The  last  did  not  contemplate  Callieres's  plan  of  invasion  along 
Lake  Champlain,  except  as  subordinate  to  a  direct  naval  attack 
at  the  mouth  of  the  Hudson.  It  is  curious  to  see  how  widely  at 
variance  with  the  geographical  conditions  of  the  problem  were 


the  current  notions  which  prevailed  even  in  Holland  at  this 
time,  notwithstanding  the  close  intimacy  which  the  Dutch  had 
had  with  this  region.  Official  knowledge  in  France  was  of 
course  much  better,  but  the  ^Amsterdam  edition  of  Blome's 
America,  which  was  just  published  (1688),  makes  the  portage 
between  the  St.  Lawrence  and  the  Atlantic  at  a  divide  which 


i!ii' 


p  ■ 


W'' 


'hi 


B  ll 
h  '1 


,t    h'I 


H\ 


'«'• 


.  (sP  1  I 


m 


348 


FRONT  EN  AC  RECALLED. 


separated  the  headwaters  of  the  Connecticut  River  and  the 
sources  of  Lake  Ghamplain. 

The  scheme  of  invasion  of  the  English  colonies,  as  they 
understood  it  in  the  cabinets  of  Quebec  and  Paris,  was  a  far- 
reaching  one.  It  would  isolate  New  England  for  the  same  end 
which  Burgoyne  and  Clinton  sought,  when  in  1777  they  aime'l 
at  uniting  their  forces  at  Albany.  It  would  deprive  the  Iro- 
quois of  their  accustomed  dependence  on  the  English,  and  so 
check  their  western  raiding.  It  would  give  to  Canadian  trade 
a  harbor  that  was  not  blocked  by  ice  a  large  part  of  the  year. 

It  was  hoped  that  the  campaign  could  be  consummated  by 
October  (1689)  ;  but  that  mouth  had  already  come. 

Failure  of  ,        n  ^         t\  -i      t      ^        "r^    ■,,< 

Rttempton     whcu  the  tiect  under  Irontenac  reached  the  Ciulf  ot 

Mow  York 

St.  Lawrence.  To  perfect  the  strategical  arrange- 
ments involved,  and  organize  a  land  service,  the  governor,  leav- 
ing the  fleet  in  the  gulf,  had  intended  to  go  on  to  Quebec, 
and  when  all  was  ready  to  send  back  word  to  his  naval  asso- 
ciate in  the  gulf,  who  was  then  to  proceed  to  New  York.  All 
this,  to  be  effective,  ought  to  have  been  done  at  an  earlier 
season.  Therefore  it  was  not  long  before  the  French  determined 
that  the  project  must  be  abandoned  for  that  year  at  least. 

The  demoralization  which  Frontenac  found  on  reaching 
Quebec,  as  it  turned  out,  gave  no  time  to  think  of  any  such 
offensive  undertaking.  With  the  opening  of  the  year 
Troubles  at  (January,  1690),  it  was  known  in  Quebec  that  con- 
spiracy against  the  French  had  ripened  among  the 
tribes  around  Mackinac.  They  were  known  to  be  joining  in  the 
councils  of  the  Iroquois.  The  Foxes  were  rendering  the  portage 
to  the  Illinois  by  Green  Bay  almost  useless,  because  of  their 
hostility,  and  all  communication  with  the  Mississijjpi  valley  was 
forced  to  find  a  channel  by  Lake  Superior  and  the  St.  Croix, 
where  we  find  Le  Sueur,  a  little  later,  endeavoring  to  protect 
even  this  distant  portage  from  hostile  raids.  Perrot  was  doing 
what  he  could  to  hold  the  Ottawas  to  their  allegiance. 

It  was  clear  that  Frontenac  had  no  resources  to  meet  these 
dangers  where  they  lay.  Louis  in  sending  him  to  Canada  had 
warned  him  that  he  must  do  the  royal  bidding  with  no'  further 
help  than  he  could  find  in  the  country,  for  France  had  dangers 
enough  at  home  to  employ  all  her  troops.  It  was  also  apparent 
that  to  paralyze  the  English  support  of  the  Iroquois,  whose 


li 


'    f 


'  and  the 

I,  as  they 
was  a  far- 
I  same  end 
hey  aimed 
e  the  Iro- 
sh,  and  so 
iian  trade 
he  year, 
imated  by 
sady  come, 
le  Gulf  of 
[  arrange- 
rnor,  leav- 
3  Quebec, 
laval  asso- 
ork.  All 
an  earlier 
letermined 
jast. 

reaching 
■  any  such 
)f  the  year 

that  con- 
imong  the 
ling  in  the 
he  portage 
e  of  their 
valley  was 
St.  Croix, 
to  protect 
was  doing 

• 

meet  these 
mada  had 
no'  further 
id  dangers 
)  apparent 
ois,  whose 


THE  FOX-WISCONSIN  ROUTE. 


349 


machinations  had  produced  this  western  difficulty,  these  rivals 
must  be  kept  busy  at  home.  While  there  was  a  plan  under 
consideration  at  Versailles  to  attack  Boston,  Frontenac  thought 


>-! 

r"-! 
^ 

a 
ts 

i 

S 

S 

1 

3! 

^ 

S. 

I 

i 

QD* 

o 

t:5 

^M 

^ 

&! 

c 

2 

9! 

^* 

«•« 

V" 

K 

i 

9> 

•^ 

§ 

§ 

<5 

G 

> 

H 

n 

that  it  was  left  for  him  to  set  on  foot  the  expeditions  which  led 
to  the  bloody  work  at  Schenectady,  Salmon  Falls,  and  Bloody  work 
Fort  Loyal  "(the  modern  Portland).      In  the  spring  «»"'««'«*■ 
of  1690,  the  English  at  Albany,  aware  of  the  natural  result  of 
any  Iroquois  defection,  had  warned  the  Boston  government  of 


ill  'ii 


]i? 


111  III 


lii 


ii 


1'     , 


m 


i-' 


;<    ! 


frn 


iiil  I 


i'  V 


850 


FRONT  EN  AC  RECALLED. 


WM.     Sir 
Willinm 
Pliips's  ex- 
piiUtions  to 
Port  Royal ; 
to  Quebec. 


what  they  were  to  expect  iihnig  the  eastern  frontiers.  The  Now 
Englanders  on  their  part,  and  at  the  same  time,  sought  to  keep 
the  attention  of  Frontenai!  on  the  alert  along  the  St.  Lawrence, 
and  so  leave  the  western  question  to  settle  itself,  confident  that 
the  Iroquois  intrigues  were  equal  to  the  task.  When  both  sides 
showed  their  hands,  there  was  enough  to  <lo  in  the  east. 

The  New  Englanders  had  long  been  familiar  with  the  Nova 
Scotia  coasts,  and  it  had  been  a  frequent  complaint  of  Meules, 
the  intendant,  that  the  Boston  fishermen  dared  to  make  tlio 
Acadian  fislieries  their  own,  while  there  was  hardly  a  pilot  or 
sailor  in  all  Canada.  The  time  had  come  for  a  firmer  grasp. 
The  spring  of  1G90  was  a  busy  one  in  Massachusetts 
Bay,  in  fitting  out  the  armament  which  Sir  William 
PI  lips  led  against  Port  Koyal  (Annapolis),  and  in 
May  he  came  back  in  triumph.  He  could  now  enter 
upon  the  greater  preparation  for  an  attack  on  Quebec.  At  the 
same  time  a  congress  at  Albany  had  planned  a  land  attack  by 
Lake  Champlain  under  Fitz-John  Winthrop,  who  was  commis- 
sioned by  Lcisler,  on  July  31,  1G90.  The  two  expeditions 
were  to  act  in  conjunction,  and  Phips  sailed  from  Boston  with 
thirty-two  vessels  in  August.  Colonel  Church  was  sent  to  the 
eastward  along  the  Maine  coast,  to  divert  attention,  and  lie 
accomplished  enough  for  this  purpose ;  but  AVinthrojj's  effort 
was  a  failure  from  the  beginning,  so  that  Phips  approached 
Quebec  with  no  prospect  of  the  expected  cooperation.  Ilis  mis- 
carriage was  worse  than  Winthrop's,  in  that  he  blustered  and 
retreated.  Frontenac  put  on  a  bolder  front  than  his  strength 
warranted,  and  Phips  was  deceived.  The  New  England  shijjs 
straggled  down  the  river,  and  did  little  but  burn,  on  Anticosti 
Island,  the  establishment  with  which  the  government  had  re- 
warded Joliet  for  his  services  in  discovery.  The  baffled  X(>\v 
Englanders  also  managed  later  to  intercept  some  of  the  sup])ly 
ships,  which  Quebec  could  ill  spare,  but  Iberville,  who  was 
returning  with  some  plunder  from  a  renewed  attack  on  the  Eng- 
lish at  Hudson's  Bay,  eluded  the  English  ships  and  escaped  to 
France. 

Phijjs's  failure  was  every  way  dispiriting.     The  mercliants 
of  New  England  and  New  York  had  counted  on  his 

Fur  trade  *=  i     i       t     t 

nortii  and      succcss  to  coutrol  tlic  Indian  trade  of  the  west,  for  the 
monopoly  of  the  Hudson  Bay  Company  was  diminish- 


lii. 


LA    IIOXTAX. 


3")! 


ing  this  western  trade  too  nuieh  to  iniike  a  (livislon  of  it  lH't\vt>un 
the  French  and  the  English  profitable  to  both.  The  Carolinians 
were  already  opening  the  eluuuu'ls  of  trailo  in  the  valley  oi  tlu5 
Tennessee.  In  this  same  spring  London  merchants,  trading 
in  these  colonies,  had  urged  a  protest  in  the  liords  against 
the  Commons  being  allowed  to  give  new  force  to  the  charter 
which  Charles  II.  had  bestowed  npon  the  Hudson  Bay  Com- 
pany. They  represented  that,  under  color  of  pushing  the  search 
for  a  northwest  passage,  the  company  was  both  engrossing  tlu> 
trade  of  the  far  west,  and  driving  the  Freinh  to  an  interference 
with  the  trade  of  other  P^nglish  farther  south,  upon  whoso  pros- 
perity that  of  England  depended. 

Frontenac  had  never  shown  himself  more  signally  etpial  to 
a  trying  emergency  than  when  he  hurried  to  Quebec  and  deiied 
the  English  fleet.  When  ho  saw  it  disappear  behind  the  island 
of  Orleans,  he  experienced  a  relief  which  he  could  hardly  have 
anticipated.  Ilis  good  fiU'tune  did  not  consist  in  the  discomfi- 
ture of  Phijjs  alone.  lie  had  succeeded  in  nmning  down  to 
Montreal  the  first  flotilla  of  fur-laden  canoes  which  the  mer- 
chants of  that  town  had  seen  for  a  long  time.  There  weiv  a 
hundred  and  ten  of  these  little  cargoes  of  peltry  to  reanimate 
trade.  Frontenac,  seventy  years  old  as  he  was,  was  joyful 
enough  to  dance  a  war  dance  with  the  Indian  boatmen. 

In  November,  Frontenac  wrote  out  his  dispatches  upon  his 
success.      He  somewhat  exuberantly  told  the  minis-  ,r,oo,  xo- 
tcr  that  if  he  would  take  care  of  tlu^  English  for  the  Kmnuil«,-'s 
future,  he  could  deal  with  the  Iroquois,     lie  sent  his  '•'mw»iiI'»'9- 
letters  by  a  young  Gascon,  who  had  come  to  Canada  six  or 
seven  years  befoi-e,  and  had  niude  his  way  into  Frontenac's  favor. 
He  was  an  imaginative,  if  not  audacious,  story-teller, 

1  -111  1.-I1  L«Hoiita«. 

La  Hontan  by  name,  and  what  lie  claimed  to  liave 
seen  in  the  far  west,  beyond  the  Mississipjn,  along  a  river  by 
which  one  coiUd  ascend  to  the  mountains,  and  thence  reach  by 
another  stream  the  Pacific,  passed  into  current  belief  some 
years  later,  when  he  published  his  book.  His  story  began  to 
be  doubted  by  171G  ;  but  it  continued  to  have  a  fitful  existence, 
accepted  wholly  by  some,  in  a  qualified  way  by  others,  and  dis- 
carded entirely  by  the  warier,  till  its  last  defenders  disappeared 
in  the  early  part  of  the  present  century.  The  Long  or  Dead 
River,  as  he  calls  it,  —  the  last  name  fitting  its  sluggish  cui'rent, 


II 


III 


'  !ltt'  '• 


iiii 


'I 


i  ! 


|!      < 


(I 


iT' 


862 


FRONTENAC  RECALLED. 


3^  J' 

LA  HOXTAN'S 


■e  tantattax 


TSunitean 


fUttt^ 


Brrier^TUIUf 


MJUrffTUr  I 


"^f 


ll""ll!l» 


^5 

k  HONTAN'S 


L.\    HONTAN'S  MAI' 


3*JL. 


853 


GRAiTD     B>STACt   DE    TJCRRE 
'DE  7y^flit><J00R      <?ir  QgiT  ESKIMdUX 

J!  r^/i^^Ut^rri  Jsj  TTlarfti£j  .  . 

'/<v  t'iU*J  Fr"^*^*^  au-OiigUi^rtj' .A^ 

■  d*J  t'l'im^U  FfMtfftJ  ftl  tVtflK^ I^ 

-  'n  Vllnjfiu    'tj  .fju^^f^, 37 

tJ  n^fnj  J'auvm^tj  iunuitt^ Tj 

Ca^trr^Trr. .  .•     Jtfi 

C*j  fi^tJ  "t^e  <U  ffHU^  Croitt.  Jmt wm 

a>e f^^^^nn^w,  ,  r ,„. .J| 

AuT^'^f./ ...TT.     s 

'ifn4,J\jit'XM'ta.Vtutr» ♦ 


O  C  E  A  l^E 


■j^ 


9  10 


3^3 


3S.O' 


3  3-5 


I 


CANADA. 


354 


FR  ON  TEN  A  C  RECA  LLED. 


—  came  and  went  on  the  maps,  and  was  now  identified  with  this 
or  the  other  stream  of  the  modern  geography  till  the  later  dis- 
coverers  found  it  difficult  to  place  it  anywhere. 


■At  I 


K.. 


^:  1  Ml 


»5 


Frontenac  lost  no  time  in  sending  the  tidings  of  his  successes 
to  the  western  tribes,  hoping  to  stay  their  defection,  but  the 
defeat  of  Phips  and  tne  discouragement  of  Winthrop  had  little 


'11 E  IROQUOIS. 


355 


effect  on  the  Iroquois.  They  still  prowled  and  attacked,  and 
it  was  thought  necessary  to  palisade  the  Jesuit  mission  Theiroquois 
at  Mackinac.  Btni  active. 

The  governmei^t  in  London  was  li^lle  inclined  to  risk  an- 
other armament  in  the  St.  Lawrence.  In  November,  1691, 
Phi])s  was  in  London  suggesting  it,  but  he  did  not  press  the 
subject. 

The  colonists  were  soon  using  their  influence  to  bring  the 
Iroquois  and  the  Shawnees  into  terms  of  agreement.  The  re- 
sult was  to  relieve  the  confederates  of  an  enmity  which  distracted 
them,  and  it  left  them  freer  to  renew  their  raids  along  the  St. 
Lawrence.      So  it  happened  that  it  was  not  till  1693 

1093. 

that  the  Fi-ench  succeeded  in  getting  through  to  JMon- 
treal  another  flotilla  of  canoes,  when  two  hundred  of  them, 
under  escort  of  a  force  which  Frontenac  put  at  the  disjiosal  of 
Louvigny,  now  the  commandant  at  Mackinac,  relieved  the  store- 
houses at  the  straits,  and  brought  trade  once  more  to  the  St. 
Lawrence. 

There  wei'e  rumors  of  another  attack  on  Quebec  from  Bos- 
ton, to  be  aided  this  time  by  a  na\  al  contingent  from  England, 
and  Frontenac  set  vigorously  to  work  to  strengthen  the  defenses 
of  his  capital,  and  kept  the  confederates  occu])ied  by  new 
irruptions  among  them.  Governor  Fletcher,  then  in  authoiity 
in  New  Yoi'k,  had  received  enlarged  powers,  particularly  in 
relation  to  the  militia  of  the  neighboring  colonies,  in  order  that 
he  miji'ht  command  a  danuerous  force,  if  invasion  was 

*'  1G94. 

intended.  In  1094,  the  Iroquois  showed  signs  of  fal- 
tering. They  told  the  English  that  they  nuist  have  niox'c  active 
hel])  if  they  were  still  to  press  the  French.  At  the  same  time 
they  sent  a  deputation  to  Quebec,  m  May,  and  again  in  Sep- 
tember, they  urged  their  diplomacy  with  Frontenac,  but  he  was 
firm  in  his  rejection  of  any  offer  that  did  not  include  the  west- 
ern allies  of  the  French,  and  which  did  include  the  English. 
The  Iroquois  were  not  <piite  ready  to  abandon  their  white 
neighbors,  or  forego  their  ho})e  of  eating  the  Illinois,  as  they 
always  expressed  it.     So  the  negotiations  failed. 

Frontenac's  sense  of  duty  towards  these  western  allies  was 
not  acceptable  either  to  the  bishop  or  to  the  home  government. 
It  meant  too  much  interference  with  plans,  to  please  tlie  Jes- 
uits, and  the  king  was  easily  persuaded  by  that  body.     When 


I 


it} 


I'.- 


I 


i 


I 


s 


i':l !] 


E    ■■ 


m  :■ 


f 

'i 


i    i 


i    if 


,5 


D  I; 

'(   ' 


p-  .M     ^ 


356 


FRONTENAC  RECALLED. 


1094.  La 
Motim  at 
Mackiuac. 


Louis  tried,  a  little  later,  to  force  Frontt-r'ac  to  make  terms  with 
Prontenao  *^®  Iroquois  Oil  coiiditions  that  broke  faith  with  the 
western  westem  tribes,  the  courage  and  obstinacy  of  the  gov- 
tribes.  emor  were  put  to  the  test,  but  he  carried  his  point. 

He  knew  there  was  one,  in  his  ardent  lieutenant  on  the  Illinois, 
who  was  ready  to  make  a  new  effort  for  the  occupation  of  the 
Mississippi.  Tonty  hoped  for  an  attack  on  Mexico  from  such 
a  base ;  he  hoped  to  develop  the  lead  mines  and  augment  the 
trade  in  peltries ;  and  above  all,  he  hoped  in  this  way  to  prevent 
the  threatening  advent  of  the  English.  It  was  to  warn  the 
government  of  this  danger  that  Le  Sueur  went  to  Paris  the 
next  year  (1695).  This  adventurer  was  now  given  a  trade 
monopoly  for  ten  years  of  the  upper  Mississippi,  to  make  good 
the  French  hold  on  that  part  of  it ;  but  the  English  captured 
him  on  his  way  back. 

With  the  return  flotilla  in  September,  1694,  Frontenac  sent 
La  Mothe  Cadillac  to  govern  at  Mackinac  and  be- 
yond. This  lieutenant  soon  informed  Frontenac  that 
he  found  the  Ottawas  despairing  of  the  French  protec- 
tion, as  the  governor  was  too  well  aware  that  they  must  be,  con- 
sidering what  kind  of  lessons  the  Jesuit  spirit  was  inculcating. 
That  liquor  was  no  longer  sold  to  them  was  one  of  the  enforced 
deprivations  which  the  Indians  laid  to  the  Jesuits.  If  this 
deprivation  had  in  many  ways  proved  salutary,  Cadillac  saw 
that  it  had  also  a  bad  effect  on  French  domination, 
since  it  induced  communication  with  the  English, 
where  the  savages  had  little  difficulty  in  obtaining 
what  they  desired.  This  longing  for  liquor  was  always  stvonj> 
enough  to  counteract  the  purposes  of  the  French  trader,  wlio 
aimed  to  keep  the  Indian  sufficiently  in  his  debt  to  leave  him 
little  occasion  to  seek  the  English  for  trade.  Comnuinicatiou 
with  these  rivals  of  the  French  could  only  mean  a  weakening 
of  their  allegiance,  and  there  was  enough  of  it  to  cause  no  small 
disquiet  to  Cadillac.  This  officer  soon  found  that  tlie  most 
stubborn  pagan  would  receive  any  amount  of  baptisnx  for 
an  equal  amount  of  brandy,  aii''  woiUd  make  little  distinction 
between  brandy  with  and  without  the  sacred  rites. 

Cadillac  soon  informed  Frontenac  that  there  could  be  no 
l>eace  witli  the  Iroquois  till  the  English  were  eliminated  from 
the  problem,  and  there  was  no  effectual  way  of  doing  it  but 


The  English 
and  the 
liquor  traf- 
fic. 


CADILLAC. 


357 


to  capture  and  hold  the  English  posts  at  Albany  and  Now 
York. 


Sombeifeiure  deux  Vaurseuux, 
tAmlou  ctrFtxincois 


[From  La  Hoiitan's  Xouveaiix  Voynge.i.] 


Cadillac,  in  his  fort  u":  Mackinac,  —  it  had  a  garrison  of  two 
hundred  men,  —  was  in  every  way  situated  to  know  tiiM  oontlitions 
of  the  problem.     His  was  an  active  mind,  and  it  mattered  little 


U-.i 


5- 'ill 


mm 


■  ^ 

■  I  :^^^^HIJ 

t- 

h,.-  ' 

3^H 

•    ;•  ;   : 

'  Warn 

\ 


358 


FRONTENAC  RECALLED. 


TllK  LAi:(;r,K 


1 


"i 


< 


i/Outoulibii 

K'rt  r.'ur  €ntf,tcht* 


rN 


1 1 1  n  o  I 


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TllK    LAJKilUt 


HENNEPIN'S  MAP. 


359 


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HENNEPIN    M.vr,   1G97. 


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'   ■? 
t     ; 


860 


FRONTENAC  RECALLED. 


Perrot  and 
Lo  Sueur. 


to  him  whether  he  had  the  mischievous  Huron  or  the  ungodly 
bushranger  to  control.  He  liked  most  to  thwart  the  Jesuits, 
Hackiuao  ^^^  ^^^  purposcs  Were  all  that  Frontenac  could  wish 
i^*-  in  this  respect.     A  pistol-shot  away  from  the  French 

post  at  Mackinac  there  was  a  permanent  Indian  village  of 
six  or  seven  thousand  souls ;  and  not  a  tribe  of  the  northwest 
but  had  all  the  time  more  or  less  straggling  representatives 
hanging  about  the  spot.  The  little  place  had  some  attractions 
for  wide-eyed  wonder.  It  was  as  fine  a  village  as  there  was  in 
Canada,  as  Cadillac  describes  it,  with  its  sixty  houses  in  a 
straight  street,  and  the  land,  which  the  Indians  cultivated  for 
tuipplying  the  settlement  with  corn,  cleared  for  three  leagues 
around. 

Frontenac,  in  forcing  his  policy,  had  other  steadfast  .'(bettors 
in  the  west  beside  Cadillac.  Ferrot  was  a  ninn  to  he 
trusted.  The  Sieur  Juchereau  was  starting  the  first 
industry  on  the  Mississippi  in  a  tannery  at  tlie  mouth  of  the 
Ohio.  Le  Sueur  was  build! ug  forts  on  the  upper  Mississippi 
to  hold  all  hostile  tribes  in  check.  It  was  he  who,  in  1695, 
took  the  first  Sioux  to  Montreal  that  had  been  seen  on  the  St. 
Lawrence,  —  a  chief,  who  did  not  survive  the  winter  in  his 
iniwonted  environment.  That  same  year,  as  we  have  seen,  this 
trader  went  to  France  to  get  new  ])rivileges. 

In  1696,  Frontenac  was  ready  once  more  to  try,  on  the  IVIo- 
„,^,  hawk,  to  settle  this  vexed  question  of  the  west.    Early 

atuokTtiie  "'^  ^^6  summer,  the  Iroquois  were  again  making  trouble, 
Iroquois.  ^^^^^  ^jjg  govomor  determined  to  deliver  a  heavy  blow. 
He  had  recently  received  three  hundred  soldiers  from  France, 
and  he  sent  a  pa»ty  to  put  Fort  Frontenac  in  re])air.  He  madf; 
the  work  move  briskly  for  fear  his  intention  would  be  checked 
b}'^  orders  to  desist.  The  confederates  took  the  movement  as  a 
menace,  and  mo/  «1  a;i  rapidly.  Early  in  July  (1G9G),  Fron- 
tenac was  ready,  and  left  Montreal  with  twenty-two  hundre  I 
men.  He  went  tu  Cataraqui,  and  then,  crossing  to  Oswepo,  was 
at  Lake  Onondaga  on  the  1st  of  August.  Here  he  saw  the 
light  of  the  village,  which  the  Onondagas  were  burning  as 
they  retired  before  the  French  advance.  A  detachment  was 
sent  to  destroy  an  Oneida  tov/n,  while  the  main  body  did  all  the 
mischief  they  hurriedly  could.  This  end  accomplished,  they 
were  off  for  Fort  Frontenac  before  the  English  at  Albany  knew 


PEACE  OF  RYSWICK. 


361 


ungodly 
i  Jesuits, 
uld  wish 
e  French 
rillage  of 
lorthwest 
sentatives 
ttractions 
re  was  in 
ises  in  a 
vated  for 
se  leagues 

t  abettors 
lan  to  l>e 
;•  the  first 
itb  of  the 
lississippi 
,  in  1695, 
•n  the  St. 
ter  in  his 
seen,  this 

n  the  Mo- 
st. Early 
ig  trouble, 
3avy  blow, 
m  France, 
He  made 
30  checked 
mient  as  a 
9G),  Fron- 
0  hundrt'I 
^we2;o,  was 
le  saw  the 
jurning  as 
hment  was 
did  all  the 
Ished,  they 
.bany  kuew 


what  had  happened.  The  occurrence  readily  suggested  argu- 
ments to  those  who  were  at  this  time  urging,  in  the  Board  of 
Trade  at  London,  that  the  English  power  should  be  centralized 
in  a  captain-general ;  and  it  gave  force  to  the  demand  of  Wil- 
liam Penn  that  the  English  colonies  could  more  effectively  act 
if  they  only  had  an  annual  congress. 

It  seemed,  for  a  while,  as  if  the  vigor  of  Frontenac's  cam- 
paign had  unnerved  the  Iroquois.  The  English  sent  corn  to 
their  desolated  villages,  but  it  did  not  prevent  the  Tiieiroquois 
confederates  sending  messengers  to  Quebec  to  pro-  pe'^ce,'^btit 
pose  a  peace.  Their  incessant  wars  had  told  on  their  ""^^  refused. 
strength,  notwithstanding  their  custom  of  adopting  prisoners. 
Fletcher,  the  Englisli  governor,  reckoned  that  they  had  been 
reduced  from  twenty-five  hundred  warriors  tc  less  than  thir- 
teen hundred,  and  that  they  numbered  perhaps  fifteen  thousand 
souls  in  all.  They  had  not,  however,  been  reduced  enough 
to  abandon  their  old  grudge  against  the  western  Indians,  and 
Frontenac  was  not  disposed  to  listen,  unless  they  would  include 
in  their  peace  the  Ottawas  and  the  other  distant  allies  of  the 
French.  The  Iroquois  wouhl  not  yield,  and  the  negotiations 
fell  through. 

The  French  were  now  seriously  considering  an  attack  on 
Boston,  and  we  have  the  plans  which  were  made  for  tliem 
(January,  1697)  and  put  in  shape  by  their  cartographer,  Fran- 
quelin,  to  guide  them  up  the  harbor  of  that  New  England  town ; 
but  the  Peace  of  liyswick,  in  the  autumn  (September  igf,^  pp^^g 
30,  1697),  prevented  action  and  brought  a  five  years'  °^  ^y^^^'*^^''- 
truce  with  the  English,  and  stayed  the  latter's  purpose  of  seiz- 
ing the  mouths  of  the  Mississippi.  Tlie  news  of  the  treaty 
reached  New  York  before  it  came  to  Quebec,  and  Frontenac 
heard  of  it  from  this  source  in  February,  1698  ;  while  jnos.  Known 
no  confirmation  came  from  his  own  government  till  '"^auadii. 
July.  This  delay  illustrated  anew  the  disadvantages  of  an  ice- 
i  ound  river,  and  brought  a  fresh  reminder  of  the  desirableness 
of  a  more  salubrious  ingress  to  Canada.  The  Quebec  govern- 
ment had  long  been  aware  of  the  maritime  supremacy  which 
the  open  seaboard  of  tha  English  colonies  gave  to  their  rivals, 
and  the  English  government  had  of  late  begun  the  construction 
of  ships  of  war  in  Massachusetts  Bay,  the  •'  Falkland,"  a  frig- 
ate of  fifty-four  guns,  having  just  been  finished  at  Portsmouth. 
This  act  was  of  itself  ominous. 


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FRONTENAC  RECALLED. 


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FRONTENACS  DEATH. 


363 


■ 


Lord  Bellomont  was  now  in  command  in  New  York.  He 
had  arrived  April  2, 1698,  and  his  authority  covered  also  Massa- 
chusetts and  New  Hampshire.  He  soon  undertook  to  arrange 
an  exchange  of  prisoners  with  Frontenac,  and  demanded  the 
return  of  some  Iroquois  whom  the  French  had  taken.  To  have 
acceded  would  have  been  to  recognize  the  English  sovereignty 
over  those  confederates,  and  Frontenac  was  too  wary  to  be 
caught.  As  the  summer  went  on,  Bellomont  (August  AuRust. 
22)  gave  a  more  forcible  expression  of  the  English  w^"°"'J"on. 
position  in  a  warning  to  Frontenac  that  if  the  French  *^"'*'^" 
attempted  another  invasion  of  the  Iroquois  country  he  was  pre- 
pared to  resist  it.  Frontenac  received  the  intimation  in  his 
usual  defiant  spirit. 

A  man  of  seventy-seven,  as  Frontenac  now  was,  with  all  his 
rugged  and  blunt  determination  rendered  bolder  by  a  sort  of 
barbarous  pride,  had  not  lived  a  life  of  turmoil  without  some 


iillll 


ilp% 


CHATKAU  DE  ST.   LOUIS,   1698. 

[From  Suite's  CunatHeiis-Friiiirais,  vii.] 


inroads  upon  a  naturally  robust  constitution.  In  December, 
word  came  to  Boston  from  Champigny,  his  associate  in  the  gov- 
ernment, that  the  old  soldier  had  at  last  succumbed,  on  ,^„„  ^^ 

.  ■,      ■,    1G98,  Nov. 

the  25th  of  November  (1698).     A  frozen  river  had  -s.   Fron- 

.  «  .         .  .  ■,      tenac  dies. 

again  brought  the  necessity  of  communicating  with 
France  through  a  rival  province.  Chanipigny's  messenger, 
Vincelot,  sailed  for  Europe  from  Boston  ;  but  another  messen- 
ger reached  Paris  a  few  hours  ahead.  This  was  Courtemanche, 
whom  Callieres  had  secretly  dispatched  ahead  of  Vincelot. 
This  other  messenger  had  ascended  the  Sorel,  and  reached  New 
York  by  the  Hudson.  His  earlier  appearance  in  Paris  very 
likely  helped  assure  the  appointment  of  Callieres  as  the  suc- 
cessor of  Frontenac. 

The  death  of  Frontenac  left  France  with  many  difficult  prob- 
lems yet  unsolved.      Notwithstanding   the  exclusive  ^   .. ,     , 

.  .        1 0  m         Knglisli  and 

trade  which  the  government  preserved  to  itself  at  Ta-  French  ri- 
doussac  and  elsewhere,  Canada  had  not  been  able  to 


ik  H 


m 


^^^1 


fi'/jiV.-.i 


864 


FRONTENAC  RECALLED. 


...:  ,1:1 


yield  a  revenue  equal 
to  the  charges.  The 
English  ami  the  Iro- 
quois wero  t  constant 
clanger  to  the  French 
occupation  of  the 
great  valleys.  The  Iro- 
quois still  hovered 
along  the  St.  Law- 
rence, and  both  they 
and  their  English  al- 
lies were  feared  on  the 
Mississippi.  Adven- 
turous traders  wero  al- 
ready crossing  the  Al- 
leghanies  from  the  sea- 
board colonies,  and 
their  huts  were  becom- 
ing permanently  fixed 
along  the  Ohio.  The 
government  at  Paris, 
aware  of  this,  and  hav- 
ing no  occasion  of  their 
own  as  yet  to  take  pos- 
session of  the  region 
towards  which  these 
English  were  heading, 
felt  the  necessity  of 
occupying  the  great 
valley  of  the  west, 
merely  to  keep  their 
rivals  out.  An  expe- 
dition under  Montigny 
and  St.  Cosme  had 
started     along     Lake 

Michiuan  in  the  later  months  of  1698.  It  was  the  advance  of 
the  church  to  make  good  the  prophecy  of  Marquette. 

Montigny;      Tlicy   passcd  up   the   western   shores   of   that  lake ; 

Tonty!""*'     they  stopped  at  Melwarik  (Milwaukee)  ;  they  crossed 

LrsiTeur.      the   Chicago   portage   early   in    November,   and    on 


FRONTENAC. 


[From  the  Froutenac  Statue  at  Quebec] 


CALLIEltES. 


305 


gus. 


nuo  equal 
The 
the   Iro- 
constant 
he  French 
of    the 
).   The  Iro- 
hovered 
St.    Law- 
both   they 
Inglish  ul- 
,red  on  the 
Adven- 
srs  were  al- 
ng  the  Al- 
om  the  sear 
)nies,    and 
rare  becom- 
lently  fixed 
3hio.     The 
;   at    Paris, 
is,  and  hav- 
sion  of  their 
to  take  pos- 
the   region 
hieh     these 
re  heading, 
lecessity   of 
the     great 
the     west, 
keep   their 
An  expe- 
;r  Montigny 
Dosme    had 
long     Lake 
3  advance  of 
Marquette, 
that  hike ; 
they  crossed 
er,   and    ou 


I 


December  G  they  reached  the  Mississippi.  Thoy  had  picked 
up  Tonty  at  liis  post,  and  ho  gui<led  them  on  as  far  us  the 
Arkansas,  when  he  was  obliged  to  return.  The  missionaries,  in 
their  narrative,  speak  of  this  old  companion  of  La  Salle  as  the 
man  who  best  knew  the  country,  where  ho  was  both  loved  and 
feared  by  all  the  tribes.  The  next  year  (1700),  Father  Gravier 
made  his  descent  of  the  Mississippi  for  the  same  purpose,  and  W(> 
have  his  additional  account  of  experiences  along  its  course.  Wo 
learn  from  him  how  the  English  forerunners  were  active  along 
the  lines  of  the  Tennessee,  where  some  scattering  Mohegans,  rem- 
nants probably  of  those  outcasts  from  New  England  whom  La 
Salle  had  found  so  serviceable,  w-  trading  with  adventurei's 
from  over  the  Appalachians.    On  wer  Mississippi,  Gravier 

reports  finding  English  guns  in  tiie  hands  of  the  savages.  It 
is  evident  that  Gravier  was  by  no  means  sure  that  these  English 
were  destined  to  be  seriously  opposed.  "  I  do  not  know  what 
our  court  will  decide  about  the  Mississippi,"  he  says,  "  if  no 
silver  mines  are  found,  for  our  govoriunent  does  not  seek  land 
to  cultivate.  They  care  very  little  for  mines  of  lead,  which  are 
very  abundant  near  the  Illinois."  The  px'ovious  year  (1G90), 
Le  Sueur  had  passed  up  the  Mississippi  from  its  mouth,  in 
charge  of  a  band  of  miners. 

The  friendship  of  the  Iroquois  was  still  the  key  to  the  situa- 
tion between  the  English  and  the  French,  not  only  along  the 
St.  Lawrence,  but  at  the  remotest  western  posts.  Towards 
the  close  of  Frontenac's  life,  the  colonists  on  the  Hudson  were 
renewing  their  efforts  to  make  it  appear  by  deposition  and 
memorial  that  they  held  tlie  confederates  as  subiects 
of  the  English  crown.  Callieres,  while  yet  in  tempo-  '»"'i  ti«e 
rary  authority  by  the  death  of  Frontenac,  and  before 
he  was  confirmed  in  his  power,  had  assumed  the  same  air  of 
confident  indifference  toward  these  savages  which  Frontenac 
had  borne.  He  refused  to  entertain  any  proposition  for  the 
exchange  of  prisoners  which  coidd  be  thought  to  constitute 
the  slightest  recognition  of  their  dependence  on  the  English. 
William  III.  had  sent  orders  to  Bellomont  to  unite  with  the 
powers  in  Canada  in  making  the  Iroquois  keep  a  peace.  Cal- 
lieres  revealed  this  fact  to  the  confederates,  and  in  July,  1700, 
they  thought  it  prudent  to  send  mesengers  to  Quebec.  Bello- 
mont, on  his  part,  tried  to  prevent  any  pact  of  the  tribes  with 


:Ji.  1 


'4  » 


l;i  S 

M 
it . 

I' 

It 

M 


V. 


IMAGE  EVALUATION 
TEST  TARGET  (MT-3) 


1.0 


I.I 


11.25 


lA^IM    |2.5 
1^  1^    III  2.2 

:r   1^    12.0 


1.4    III  1.6 


6" 


PhotDgraphic 

Sciences 

Corporation 


23  WEST  MAIN  STREET 

WEBSTER,  N.Y.  U5S0 

(716)  873-4503 


366 


FRONTENAC  RECALLED. 


fit  i 


!  *• 


1699-1700. 
Detroit. 


the  French,  and  the  Iroquois  determined  to  treat  with  the 
French  first  and  with  the  English  next.  The  Onondagas  even 
1700,  Sep.  seenied  inclined  to  break  with  the  English,  and  on 
p^Sc^i  September  8,  1700,  Callieres  concluded  a  treaty  with 
the  iroquota.  ^|jq  jyoquois  doputics  at  Montreal,  by  which  the  con- 
federates, the  Hurons,  the  Ottav/as,  and  the  Abenakis  were  em- 
braced in  the  terms  of  peace. 

Meanwhile,  the  French  and  English  were  scheming  to  attain 
a  position  at  Detroit.  Bobert  Livingston  had  urged 
Bellomont  to  take  possession  of  thu'  point,  and  secure 
control  through  it  of  the  Miamis,  Illinois,  and  Shawnees.  It 
was  hoped  in  this  way  to  keep  the  Iroquois  in  subjection  to  the 
purposes  of  the  authorities  at  Albany,  by  making  them  friends 
of  the  more  distant  tribes,  and  so  to  secure  their  trade.  The 
English  plan  was  delayed,  and  this  hesitation  gave  Callieres  his 
opportunity.  After  he  had  made  his  treaty  at  Montreal,  he 
planned  to  occupy  Detroit,  and  in  order  not  to  attract  the  at- 
tention of  the  Iroquois.,  his  purpose  was  to  let  Cadillac  and 
Tonty  approach  it  from  the  side  of  Lake  Huron,  and  begin  a 
fort  there.  It  was  Cadillac's  notidn  to  make  it  the  chief  west- 
ern post  for  trade,  and  to  discontinue  the  establishments  at 
Mackinac  and  other  points  on  the  upper  lakes.  This  plan  raised 
great  opposition  both  in  Montreal  and  Mackinac,  as  tending  to 
destroy  or  weaken  their  business  prospects.  The  Jesuits,  too, 
were  aroused  because  Cadillac  intimated  a  preference  for  Ee- 
collects  in  the  missionary  work,  and  had  proposed  to  instruct 
the  tribes  in  French,  thereby  diminishing  the  influence  of  the 
Jesuit  interpreters. 

To  push  his  views,  Cadillac  went  in  the  autumn  of  1700  to 
France,  to  urge  the  scheme  upon  the  Comte  de  Maurepas.  He 
succeeded  in  bringing  Pontchartrain  over  to  his  interests,  and 
the  way  was  opened  to  other  movements,  which  took  the  active 
interest  of  France  from  the  St.  Lawrence  and  the  lakes  to  the 
mouths  of  the  Mississippi.  This  is  another  theme,  beyond  the 
scope  of  the  present  book. 


INDEX. 


Abenaki  Indians,  159,  288. 

Acadia,  bounds  of,  128,  188. 

Accault  in  charge  of  an  expedition,  267, 
274,  276, 277. 

Agnese,  Baptista,  his  maps,  56,  59,  63. 

Agona,  39. 

Agramonte,  11. 

Akamsea,  243. 

Albanel,  198,  231, 

Albany,  147,  160. 

Alexander,  Sir  William,  and  Nova  Sco- 
tia, 123;  his  Encouragement  to  Colo- 
nies, 127;  his  grants,  127;  his  Knights- 
Baronets,  127  ;  his  map,  128 ;  and  the 
attack  on  Quebec,  132 ;  authorized  to 
trade  on  the  St.  Lawrence,  133 ;  his 
charter  of  Canada,  136, 137 ;  vacated, 
138. 

Algonquins,  33,  95, 1 15 ;  enemies  of  the 
Iroquois,  85. 

Allefonsce,  Jean,  40,  41 ;  his  maps,  42, 
43,  56 ;  Cosmographie,  42,  44,  56  ;  Les 
Voyages,  56. 

Alleghany  Mountains,  16. 

Allouez,  Father,  goes  west,  198 ;  at 
Green  Bay,  200,  236 ;  at  the  Sault, 
205  ;  supposed  early  visits  to  the 
West,  229 ;  among  the  Dlinois,  2.")0 ; 
and  La  Salle,  266,  290,  323. 

Amazon  River,  16. 

Amyar  de  Chastes,  80,  a3,  88. 

Andastes,  115,  117, 121,  255. 

Andr^,  Louis,  202,  205. 

Andros,  Sir  Edmund,  governor,  342. 

Angouleme,  Lake  of,  31. 

Anian,  Straits  of,  280. 

Antieosti  Island,  26-28,  51. 

Appalachee  Bay,  312. 

Appalachian  Mountains,  207. 

Argall,  Samuel,  1 13. 

Argenson,  Vicomted',  178. 

Arkansas  Indians,  242,  292,  297. 

Arkansas  River,  151,  242,  291,  322. 

Asiatic  theory  of  America,  3,  8,  21,  73. 

Assiniboines,  273. 

Assumption  Island.    See  Antieosti. 

Atchafalaya  Bay,  312. 

Athabasca,  Lake,  151. 


Aubert,  Thomaa,  in  the  St.  Lawrence, 

10. 
Auguada,  Baye  d',  13. 
Avalon,  l^ll. 
Avangour,  Dubois  d',  189. 

Baccalaos,  38. 

Balboa,  4,  l(i. 

Baltimore,  Lord,  at  Avalon,  134. 

Bandelier  on  the  fate  of  La  Salle's  col- 
onists, 324. 

Basques  on  the  Newfoundland  coasts,  9, 
23,  124. 

Batts,  Captain  Thomas,  203. 

Baugis,  Chevalier  de,  304,  326. 

Bay  of  Chaleur,  26. 

Bazire  River,  242. 

Beaujeu,  commands  La  Salle's  fleet, 
311;  his  reputation,  311;  disagrees 
with  La  Salle,  .313. 

Beauport,  149,  155. 

Beaupr^,  39. 

Beauvais,  Sieur  de,  306. 

Belleforest,  323. 

Belle  Isle,  Straits  of,  26. 

Bellero's  map,  62. 

Bellomont,  Ejirl  of,  363.  365. 

Bering's  Straits,  280, 283. 

Bernon,  Abb^,  287. 

Bettencourt,  Descoh.  don  Portugueses,  12. 

Beverly,  Robert,  Virginia,  230. 

Bimini,  15. 

Black  River,  276. 

Blaeu,  Atlas,  160, 181 ;  his  map  of  North 
America,  182. 

Blanc  Sablon,  28. 

Block,  Adrian,  112. 

Blome,  America,  347. 

Bois  BraU  River,  274. 

Bolt,  Captain,  203. 

Boston  harbor,  91,  124 ;  French  plan  to 
attack,  349,  :J61 ;  maps,  301. 

Botero,  66 ;  Relaciones,  88. 

Boucher,  Canada,  187. 

Boull4,  Eustache,  1.30. 

Boull^,  Nicolas,  100. 

Bourinot,  J.  G.,  on  Cartier,  26. 

Bradford,  governor  of  Plymouth,  174. 


III 


368 


INDEX, 


I' 


!r 


I-;. 


Bradore  Bay,  11. 

Br^ard,  Marine  Normande,  10, 75. 

Br^beuf,  Jeau  de,  12U,  U'),  148,  150, 

158 ;  kUled,  172 ;  bust,  172. 
Breasani,  KSl. 
Bretons  on  the  Newfoundland  banks,  23, 

74. 
Brevoort,  J.  C,  17. 
Brul^,  Etienne,  100,  116,  117,  119,  his 

adventures,  121. 
Bnade.     See  Frontenao. 
Buade,  Lake,  276. 
Bufifaloes,  237,  265,  270,  272,  276,  200, 

313,  320,  321;  Hennepin'    drawing, 

259. 
Burel,  Gilbert,  129. 
Buteux,  147,  148. 
Butterfield,  C.  W.,  223. 
Byrd,  Colonel,  230. 

Cabot,  John,  his  landfall,  54;  discov- 
eries. 1,  6;  mappemonde,  14,  52,53. 

Cadillac,  257 ;  at  Mackinac,  356. 

Caen,  Emeric  de,  134,  138. 

Caen,  Guillaume  de,  124. 

California,  considered  an  island,  127; 
1.36;  Gulf  of,  136,151. 

Calli^res,  337  ;  succeeds  Froi\tenac,  365. 

Calvert  (Lord  Baltimore)  at  Ferryland, 
124. 

Calviniats  in  Canada,  129;  excluded, 
1.30. 

Canada,  population,  147,  190,  195,  230, 
253, 298,  343 ;  fur  trade,  147  ;  coloni- 
zation of,  compared  with  New  Eng- 
land, 147,  148;  earliest  records  of, 
148;  seigneuries,  149;  earliest  cen- 
sus, 187;  restored  to  the  crown,  UK); 
soldiers  and  settlers  arrive,  191  ;  in- 
tendant  and  governor,  191 ;  peace, 
194;  Duval's  map,  216;  immigra- 
tion falling  off,  254 ;  trade  decreas- 
ing, 298  ;  claims  of  the  Hundred  As- 
sociates, 301 ;  Company  of  the  North, 
301.     See  New  France. 

Canerio  Map,  1,  .3. 

Cape  Bonavista,  25. 

Cape  Breton,  26,  .50,  53,  ,54. 

Cape  Race,  36. 

Cape  Rouge,  39,  41,  42. 

Capitanal,  146. 

Capuchins,  139. 

Carignan-Saliferes  regiments,  191. 

Carleill,  Entended  Voyage,  75. 

Carolina,  traders,  242,  351. 

Carpunt,  39. 

Carr,  Colonel,  196. 

Cartier,  Jacques,  finds  melons  and  cu- 
cumbers, 14 ;  commissioned  by  Fran- 
cis I.,  18 ;  his  purpose,  22 ;  his  career, 
23  ;  sources,  23,  27,  52,  57 ;  his  first 
voyage,  24 ;  second  voyage,  28, 51, 62 ; 


near  Quebec,  29 ;  monument  to,  30 ; 
portrait,  30,  45 ;  abandons  a  ship, 
36 ;  Bref  BMt,  36-38 ;  printed,  52, 
57 ;  third  voyage,  38 ;  connection  with 
Roberval,  40;  in  St.  Malo,  45;  his 
manor  house,  46 ;  death,  47 ;  results 
of  his  explorations,  48 ;  his  maps  and 
their  influence,  50,  73;  Discoitrs  du 
Voyage,  58;  Relation  Originate,  58; 
his  lost  maps,  58 ;  his  heirs,  75  ;  his 
kidnapping  of  Indians,  75;  his  fort 
found  by  Champlain,  94;  had  mass 
said,  115. 

Cathay,  iSea  of,  42. 

Cavelier.     See  La  Salle. 

Cavelier,  P6re,  310,  320,  321. 

Cayuga  Creek,  258. 

Cayugas,  raiding,  305.     See  Ironuois. 

Cazot,  247. 

Ceriani,  Abb^,  18. 

Cliabot,  Admiral,  18,  23. 

Chambly,  85. 

Champigny,  363. 

Champlain,  Samu>  I  de,  his  youth,  80; 
his  portrait,  81 ;  was  he  originally 
Protestant?  80;  later  Catholic,  82; 
in  Spain,  82 ;  in  the  West  Indies,  82  ; 
goes  to  the  St.  Lawrence,  83 ;  his 
character,  83 ;  goes  up  the  Sague- 
nay,  84;  hears  of  western  waters, 
85,  86,  100,  193;  Sauvages,  SQ,  88; 
his  first  map,  88 ;  eager  for  explora- 
tion of  the  St.  Lawrence  valley,  89 ; 
on  tlie  Nova  Scotia  and  New  England 
coast,  89,  90;  at  Boston  harbor,  91, 
lO;^;  lieutenant-governor  of  Canada, 
93;  to  find  a  way  to  China,  93; 
founds  Quebec,  1>4;  overcomes  con- 
spirators, 94;  attacks  the  Iroquois, 
95,  99  ;  licscarbot's  award,  98 ;  picks 
out  a  wife,  100 ;  engages  in  the  fur 
trade,  100,  101 ;  his  maps  of  the  St. 
Lawrence  Gulf  and  River,  and  the 
Great  Lakes,  102-107;  receives  a  new 
commission,  103 ;  on  the  Ottawa 
with  Vignau,  110 ;  his  astrolabe,  111 ; 
his  descriptions,  113;  in  France,  114; 
introduces  missions  into  Canada,  114 ; 
sends  over  Recollects,  1 14 ;  again  at- 
tacks the  Iroquois,  1 16  ;  wounded, 
118;  winters  with  the  Hurons,  120; 
in  France,  120;  prints  a  new  book 
(1619),  122;  in  Quebec  (1621),  123; 
a  new  company  formed,  124;  mar- 
riage, 126 ;  once  more  in  France 
(1624).  126;  in  Quebec,  130;  surren- 
ders Quebec,  134;  in  London,  136; 
in  Paris,  137 ;  his  final  narrative,  1:59, 
140 ;  his  large  map,  142-144  ;  his  map 
of  the  St.  Lawrence  Gulf,  140;  re- 
commissioned  and  again  governor, 
144;    and  Richelieu,  146,    153;    his 


INDEX. 


3G9 


idea  of  French  colonization,  148 ;  at 
Three  Rivers,  148 ;  his  last  council, 
149 ;  and  Nicolet,  14U,  153 ;  his  last 
letter,  153;  his  death,  153;  burial, 
155 ;  his  remains,  155. 

Ghamplain,  Lake,  37,  08 ;  its  position 
misconceived,  100;  map,  34((. 

Charles  I.  (England),  his  marriage,  137 ; 
demands  for  a  dower,  137. 

Charles  V.,  74. 

Charles  IX.,  74. 

Charlesbourg,  39. 

Charton,  E.,  75. 

Charton,  Fran5oi8, 129. 

Chastes.    See  Amyar. 

Chaudi^re  River,  91. 

Chauliner,  Nouveau  Monde,  139. 

Chautauqua,  Lake,  223. 

Chauvin,  77, 78,  80, 98. 

Chaves,  Alonso  de,  his  chart,  48. 

Chesapeake  Bay,  124,  199. 

Chicago  portage,  5,  243,  244,  248,  249, 
330. 

Chickasaw  bluff,  291. 

Chippewas,  198. 

Choctaws,  320. 

Chomedy,  Paul  de.    See  Maisonneuve. 

Chouart.     See  Grosseilliers. 

Church,  Colonel  Benjamin,  350. 

Clamorgan,  Jean  de,  51. 

Clark,  General  J.  S.,  117,  224;  on  La 
SaUe,  317. 

Clayton,  229. 

Colbert,  189;  ponrait,  190;  and  west- 
em  exploration,  231 ;  wishes  ingress 
to  Canada  in  a  milder  climate,  254  ; 
resigns,  298. 

Colbert  River.     See  Mississippi. 

Colden,  Cadwalader,  Five  Nations,  90, 
204,  232. 

Colonists,  English,  compared  with 
French,  343. 

Colorado  River,  151,  240. 

Columbia  River,  151,  240. 

Columbus's  second  voyage,  3;  fourth 
voyage,  4 ;  doubts  the  Asiatic  theory, 
4 ;  belief  as  to  South  America,  10. 

Comanches,  320. 

Company  of  the  West,  190, 191. 

Cond^,  Prince  de,  103. 

Conibas,  Lake,  07. 

Conjugon,  Cap  de,  75. 

Connecticut  charter,  203. 

Connecticut  River,  .340. 

Copper  in  Canada,  37 ;  mines,  122,  199, 
203,  218. 

Coppo'smap,  10,  17. 

Cortereals,  0,  7,  10,  280. 

Cortes,  10,  21. 

Cosa.  La,  map,  2,  3. 

Couillard,  Henri,  93. 

Couillard,  Madame,  126. 


Coulombier,  80. 

Conrcelles,  Sieur  de,  191 ;  attacks  the 

Mohawks,  194. 
Coureurs  de  hois,  199;  relations  with 

Frontenac,  253 ;  with  Denonville,  330. 
Courtemanche,  30^3. 
Couture,  l(i9,  323,  3138. 
Coxe,  Daniel,  Carolana,  183,  312. 
Crawford,  Earl  of,  50. 
Creuxius,  Ilistoire  du  Canada,  139, 181 ; 

map,  184, 185. 
Cudragmy,  ;5(>. 
Cumberland  River,  291. 
Cunat  on  Cartier,  23. 

Dablon,  lielation,  198,  247  ;  his  mission, 
199;  at  the  Sault,  20.">,  220 ;  returns, 
232 ;  on  western  exploration,  234  ;  on 
Joliet,  240,  247. 

Dacutahs,  151 ;  their  tongue,  180.  See 
Sioux. 

Daniel,  Jesuit,  145,  150. 

Diiiimont.     See  St.  Lusson. 

Dautray,  292. 

Dauversi^re,  105. 

D'Avezac  on  Cartier,  23. 

Davost,  Jesuit,  145. 

Dawson,  Sir  William,  33. 

Dead  River,  351. 

Deane,  Charles,  69 ;  on  the  Cabot  map, 
52. 

De  Brj-,  67. 

De  Caze  on  Cartier,  30. 

De  Costa  on  Cartier,  23,  26. 

Dee,  Dr.  John,  his  map,  70,  71. 

Deguerre,  229. 

Delaware  River,  140. 

Denonville,  Governor,  328 ;  his  instruc- 
tions, 329  ;  Ids  forces,  334 ;  tortures 
thelroqiiois,  334;  attacks  the  Sene- 
cas,  330 ;  plan  of  mai-ch,  3^30,  339 ; 
accounts  of  his  expedition,  338 ;  re- 
sults of  it,  341 ;  anxious  about  the 
west,  342. 

De  Noue,  139. 

Denys,  Jean,  his  alleged  map,  9,  10. 

Dermer  on  the  New  England  coast, 
124. 

Descelier's  map,  14,  54,  55. 

Desimoni  on  the  Verrazano  voyage,  18. 

De  Soto,  295. 

Des  Plaines  River,  243. 

Detroit  occupied  by  the  French,  300. 

Detroit  River,  330. 

De  Vries,  280. 

Dieppe,  80 ;  writers,  10. 

Dionne  on  Cartier,  23,  30. 

Divine  River,  243. 

D'Olbeau,  Jean,  114, 115. 

Dollier  de  Ca.sson,  213 ;  on  Lake  Erie, 
219. 

Dongan,    Tliomas,   governor    of    New 


til 


i 


370 


INDEX. 


York,  305 ;   relations  with  the  Iro- 

Snoia,  327 ;  how  looked  upon  by  the 
'renoh,  328,  329;  his  methods,  329 ; 
his  anxiety,  341 ;  recalled,  341. 

Donnacona,  29, 30 ;  seized,  35-37 ;  dies, 
39. 

Douay,  310,  320,  321. 

Doyle,  Puritan  Colonies,  173. 

Drake,  Sir  Francis,  and  the  Straits  of 
Anian,  280. 

Druillettes,  183 ;  sent  to  Boston,  173 ; 
to  Plymouth,  174;  with  St.  Lusson, 
205. 

Ducheeneau  arrives,  254;  charges 
against  Frontenac,  209;  wishes  the 
purchase  of  Albany  and  Manhattan, 
299;  would  drive  the  English  from 
Hudson's  Bay,  301 ;  mentioned,  329. 

Dudley's  map,  170. 

Du  Gay,  276. 

Duhaut,  319,  322. 

Duluth,  among  the  Sioux,  273;  takes 
possession  of  the  country,  273,  293 ; 
seeks  a  waterway,  274;  seeks  salt 
water,  274 ;  meets  Hennepin,  277 ; 
arrested  at  Quebec,  277 ;  distrusted 
by  La  Salle,  289,  290 ;  sent  to  Lake 
Nepigon,  305 ;  summoned  by  La 
Barre,  328 ;  on  the  Detroit  River, 
330 ;  near  Lake  Superior,  331 ;  joins 
Denonville,  33(5 ;  map  of  his  western 
route,  347. 

Durantaye,  303, 328,  330,  333,  336. 

Dutch  and  the  fur  trade,  147. 

Dutch  West  India  Company,  130. 

Duval,  his  map,  181,  216. 

Eden's  edition  of  Miinster,  69. 

Effingham,  Lord,  327. 

Eliot,  John,  173. 

Endicott  at  Salem,  135. 

England,  and  the  Huguenots,  132 ; 
treaty  with  France,  137;  granting 
charters  on  the  coast,  203. 

English  in  the  St.  Lawrence,  4 ;  under 
Cabot,  6,  52,  53  ;  under  Kirke,  138  ; 
trading,  145. 

English  colonies,  population,  .343;  in- 
vasion planned,  348  ;  projects  of 
uniting,  360  ;  building  war  vessels, 
.361. 

Erie,  Lake,  uncertain  knowledge  of, 
151, 160,  207 ;  first  tracked  by  Joliet, 
219 ;  DoUier  takes  possession,  220. 
In  maps :  Galin^e's,  221 ;  Hennepin's 
(1683),  278,  279;  Franquelin's,  344; 
Coronelli's,  ^345;  Raffeix's,  347;  La 
Hontan's,3<'>3,  354 ;  Hennepin's,  359 ; 
Wells's,  362. 

Eries  (Indians),  115. 

Espiritu  Santo,  Bay,  293,  317. 

Esprit,  Pierre  d'.     See  Radisson. 


Fagondes,  JoSm  Alvarez,  12-14. 

Faillon,  Abb^,  on  Canadian  history,  33, 
80,  83,  96, 164. 

Ferland,  Ahhi,  44,  96, 177. 

Ferryland,  124. 

Fiefs,  167. 

FinsBus,  Orontius,  22. 

Fleet,  Henry,  138. 

Fletcher,  Governor,  355. 

Florio,  John,  57. 

Florida,  37, 131. 

Fort  Albany,  »J1. 

Fort  Cr^vecoBur,  266;  abandoned,  268, 
272. 

Fort  Frontenac,  252,  333;  plan,  335; 
invested,  343. 

Fort  Hayes,  331. 

Fort  Loyal  (Portland),  349. 

Fort  Miami,  289,  290. 

Fort  Niagara,  257,  337. 

Fort  Prudhomme,  291,  297. 

Fort  Richelieu,  192. 

Fort  Rupert,  3:^1. 

Fort  St.  Anne,  191. 

Fort  St.  Joseph,  264,  272,  288.  ' 

Fort  St.  Lonis  (Texas),  317 ;  (Quebec), 
.306;  (Starved  Rock),  302,  340. 

Fort  Th4r6se,  194. 

Fox  River,  152, 199,  237 ;  portage,  248, 
249,  344,  345 ;  map,  349. 

Foxes  (Indiana),  23T,  289,  330,  348. 

France  and  Spain,  231. 

Francis  I.  of  France,  74 ;  and  Ameri- 
can discovery,  18,  21,  27,  31,  35,  37. 

Franciscans,  158. 

Franciscus  Monachus  and  his  globe,  22, 
73. 

Fran^ois-Roi,  43. 

FranqueUn,  274;  maps,  293,  294,  302, 
308,  344 ;  his  drawing  of  the  fort  at 
Quebec,  306 ;  maps  of  Boston  harbor, 
361. 

Frascastoro,  61. 

Freire  map,  14,  62. 

Fremin,  21(5. 

French  Creek,  223. 

French,  The,  in  the  St.  Lawrence,  11 ; 
on  the  Atlantic  coast,  17. 

Freville,  on  the  commerce  of  Rouen,  18. 

Frobisher,  68,  280. 

Frontenac,  made  governor  of  Caimda, 
232 ;  his  character,  232 ;  interest  in 
exploration,  233,  246 ;  on  Joliet's  dis- 
coveries, 246;  wishes  a  vessel  built 
on  Lake  Erie,  247,  252 ;  conference 
at  Cataraqui,  251,  252  ;  Jesuits'  op- 
position, 251 ;  relations  with  La  Salle, 
251 ;  builds  vessels  on  Ontario,  252 ; 
and  the  bushrangers,  253;  alleged 
trading  interests,  273,299;  losing  con- 
trol of  the  Iroquois,  298 ;  withdrawn 
to  France,  299 ;  recalled  to  Canada, 


-14. 
history,  33, 


loned,  268, 
plan,  335; 


88.  ^ 

(Quebec), 
,  340. 

>rtage,  248, 

30,  348. 

and  Araeri- 

31,  35,  37. 

s  globe,  22, 


J,  204,  302, 

the  fort  at 

ston  harbor, 


wrence,  11 ; 

£  Kouen,  18. 

of   Canada, 

interest  in 

Joliet's  dis- 

vessel  built 

conference 

Jesuits'   op- 

ith  La  Salle, 

btario,  2.")2 ; 

53 ;    alleged 

I;  losing  con- 

;  withdrawn 

to  Canada, 


INDEX. 


371 


•  !  1 

I  ; 


34j  ;  his  new  instructions,  .345 ;  fails 
in  plans  of  invading  New  York,  348 ; 
repels  Phips  at  Quebec,  350 ;  dances 
a  war  dance,  .351 ;  disagrees  with  the 
bishop,  355;  attacks  the  Iroquois, 
3(i0;  and  Belloraont,  303 ;  dies,  303 ; 
portrait  in  death,  304. 

Fundy,  Bay  of,  02,  63. 

Furlano,  280. 

Fur  trade,  147;  difficulties  of  regulat- 
ing, 277 ;  more  licenses  granted,  277 ; 
demoralizing  effects,  290;  English 
and  French  rivalry,  330,  3.56. 

Gali  in  the  Pacific,  280. 

Galin^e,  214;  his  journal  and  map,  215, 
220. 

Gallseub,  66. 

Galveston  Bay,  31.3,  317. 

Ganeau,  74. 

Ganong,  on  Cartier's  track,  26. 

Garcitas  River,  317. 

Gamier,  216. 

Garreau,  183. 

Gasp^,  26,  80. 

Gastaldi's  maps,  60,  61. 

Genesee  country,  339. 

George,  Lake,  160. 

Georgian  Bay,  116. 

Gerritsz,  H.,  Delectio  Freti  Hudsoni,  107 ; 
its  map,  108-110. 

Gifart,  Robert,  155. 

Gilbert,  Sir  Humphrey,  67,  280. 

Gillam,  Captain  Z.,  195,  107. 

Gold,  sought  by  the  Spaniards,  5 ;  spu- 
rious, 40, 44. 

Golfo  Quadrado,  10. 

Gomara,  Historia,  11,  58. 

Gosselin,  E.  H.,  Glanes,  101 ;  Nouvelles 
Glanes,  101. 

Gottfried  map,  180. 

Grand  River,  219. 

Grav^.     See  Pontgrav^. 

Gravier,  P6re,  3(55. 

Gravier,  La  Salle,  223 ;  on  Joliet's  map, 
247. 

Great  Kenawha  River,  2.30. 

Green  Bay,  name,  236 ;  misplaced  by 
Charaplain,  143,  144,  151. 

Grelon,  186. 

Griffin,  A.  P.  C,  318. 

"Griffon,"  The,  built,  260;  is  lost,  263; 
early  picture^  275. 

GroUet,  324. 

Grosseilliers,  Sieur  de,  in  Canada,  182 ; 
at  Lake  Superior,  183,  186 ;  at  Three 
Rivers,  186 ;  goes  west,  187 ;  at  the 
north,  195;  proposes  a  voyage  to, 
195 ;  goes  to  Boston,  195 ;  at  Hudson's 
Bay,  195 ;  in  England,  196 ;  again  in 
Canada,  253 ;  in  Quebec,  301 ;  at- 
tacks Port  Nelson,  301. 


Grynteus,  Xovus  Orbia, 
Guast.     See  Monts. 
Gutierrez  map,  48. 


Hakluyt,  19 ;  on  Cartier,  41,  44,  iti ;  on 
a  fresh  water  sea,  <i6 ;  M'estrrne  Plant- 
ing,  (J8,  72 ;  in  Paris,  60 ;  on  the  !St. 
Lawrence  valley,  70;  Dii'ers  Voj/ages, 
72 ;  map  (1587),  72 ;  his  version  of 
Peter  Martyr,  73 ;  relations  with  Or- 
telius,  73;  his  labors,  74;  and  Les- 
carbot,  }>8. 

Hamy,  E.  T.,  7,  51. 

Hariot's  Virginia,  113. 

Harleyan  mappemonde,  14,  51, 

Harrisse,  Henry,  Discovfri/  of  North 
America,  12,  54 ;  views  on  American 
discovery,  21,  52;  his  Cabots,  2.!; 
Champlain's  map,  103;  Cartographie 
de  Nouvelle  France,  224,  246. 

Harvard  College,  147. 

Havre  de  Grace,  90. 

Hubert,  Louis,  121,  1.54. 

Heins,  339. 

Hennepin,  uses  Marquette's  map,  240 ; 
arrives  in  Canada,  2<*>4 ;  ministers  to 
the  Iroquois,  255 ;  at  Fort  Frontenac, 
257 ;  drawing  of  a  buffalo,  2.50 ;  view 
of  Niagara,  261 ;  on  tlie  Mississippi, 
267;  meets  Dnluth,  277:  at  Fort 
Frontenac,  278 ;  his  DestTiption  de  la 
Louisiane,  278,  282 ;  his  map  (l(iS3), 
278,  279,  282;  his  veracity,  282; 
Nouvelle  Dfcouverte,  282;  relations 
with  La  Salle,  282;  his  map  (1607), 
282,  284,  285;  Nouvelle  Voyage,  28;{, 
286 ;  recent  discussions,  284 ;  his  irre- 
sponsible editors,  285 ;  joins  Wil- 
liam III.  of  England,  280 ;  The  Neuf 
Discovery,  28(');  his  books  popular, 
307 ;  his  larger  map,  358, 

Henri,  the  Dauphin,  38. 

Henri  II.,  74. 

Henri  III.,  74. 

Henri  IV.,  74,  77,  82,  83;  killed,  100. 

H4rman,  map  of  Maryland,  207. 

Hevlyn's  map,  180,  181. 

Hoehelaga,  30, 31,  39 ;  view  of,  .32 ;  dis- 
appeared, 31 ;  plan  of  Lescarbot,  34. 

Hoehelay,  39. 

Honiem's  map,  62. 

Hondius,  Mercator  •  Atlas,  107;  map 
(1635),  141,  147;  and  the  Straits  of 
Anian,  280. 

Honfleur,  74,  8.3,  94,  98,  121. 

Hundred  Associates,  company  formed, 
130 ;  its  territory,  131 ;  its  purposes, 
131,  167;  give  up  their  charter,  I'.K). 

Hudson,  Henry,  on  the  Hudson  River, 
98;  in  the  north,  10();  his  charts, 
106 ;  account  t)f  his  voyage,  10(). 

Hudson  Bay  Company,   197,  301 ;    its 


s^ 


372 


INDEX. 


i 


effect  on  western  discovery,  302 ;  Dn- 
luth  to  divert  their  trade,  305,  3^]!  ; 
their  posts  attacked  by  De  Troyes, 
331 ;  rechartered,  351. 

Hudson  River,  85,  34(3. 

Hudson's  Bay,  prefigured,  106;  mapped, 
108  ;  James  s  map,  145 ;  Sanson's 
map,  179 ;  other  early  maps,  170-lHl, 
lUO,  216  ;  passages  to  by  land,  015  ; 
James's  Bay,  105;  Grosseilliers  at, 
106,  107 ;  English  in,  107,  108,  203, 
231 ;  the  French  take  formal  posses- 
sion, 231 ;  Joliet's  notions  of  its  geog- 
raphy, 245,  246;  Franquelin's  map, 
2O4 ;  the  English  traders,  30<) ;  claims 
of  the  French,  300 ;  Port  Nelson  at- 
tacked, 301 ;  New  Englanders'  illicit 
trade,  301 ;  French  and  English  at, 
331 ;  Jailot's  map,  332. 

Huguenots  in  the  English  colonies,  328. 

Humber  River,  272. 

Humboldt,  Alexander  von,  on  the 
Straits  of  Anian,  280. 

Huron,  Lake,  8(i,  105,  120 ;  mapped 
by  Champlain,  142  ;  united  with  Lake 
Michigan,  221,  222.  In  maps:  Fran- 
quelin's, 344 ;  Coronelli's,  345 ;  Raf- 
feix's,  347 ;  La  Hontan's, .  352,  353 ; 
Hennepin's,  3.50 ;_  Wells's,  362. 

Hurons,  33,  95,  115 ;  war  with  the  Iro- 
quois, 116 ;  their  villages,  117,  150 ; 
map  of  their  country,  120 ;  missions, 
158;  attacked  by  the  Iroquois,  172; 
dispersed,  172  ;  at  the  Island  of  Or- 
leans, 176 ;  driven  west,  178  ;  found 
"there,  186,  187 ;  at  La  Pointe,  200 ; 
feud  with  the  Sioux,  201,  202  ;  Mar- 
quette among,  234 ;  on  the  Detroit 
River,  270. 

Iberville  at  Hudson's  Bay,  331,  350. 

Illinois  Indians,  151,  201 ;  seen  by  Mar- 
quette, 234  ;  hunted  by  the  Iroquois, 
242,  208,  305 ;  at  Starved  Rock,  302. 

Illinois  River,  ascended  by  Joliet,  243. 

Incarnation,  M6re  de  1',  183. 

Indians,  kidnapped,  26,  28,  35,  37,  30; 
sales  of  arms  to,  123 ;  treatment  of 
by  Europeans,  130  ;  in  council,  146  ; 
from  New  England  at  the  west,  288, 
200,  205.     See  names  of  tribes. 

lowas,  178,  331. 

Iroquois  attacked  by  Champlain,  95, 90, 
116 ;  constant  attacks  on  the  French, 
96 ;  their  isolated  position,  115 ;  war 
on  the  Hurons,  116 ;  threaten  Quebec, 
125 ;  make  peace,  126 ;  their  ubi- 
quity, 158 ;  at  the  west,  159 ;  get  fire- 
arms, 160 ;  peace  of,  169  ;  their  num- 
bers, 169 ;  attack  the  Hurons,  172 ; 
sue  for  peace,  175 ;  fighting  the 
Eries,  175 ;   and  the  fur  trade,  175 ; 


and  the  Jesuits,  176 ;  their  command- 
ing country,  177 ;  their  number,  188 ; 
hunt  the  Montagnais,  188,  107; 
league  with  the  English,  103;  on 
the  Ohio,  241,  242 ;  drive  the  Shaw- 
nees,  241 ;  meet  Frontenac  at  Cata- 
raqui,  251 ;  instigated  by  the  Dutch, 
252 ;  subdue  the  Andastes,  255  ;  raids 
into  the  English  colonies,  255;  in 
the  Illinois  country,  264 ;  attack  their 
towns,  268 ;  middlemen  for  the  Eng- 
lish, 268 ;  La  Salle's  league  against 
them,  280 ;  raiding  west,  298  ;  leagu- 
ing with  the  English,  298 ;  courted 
by  French  and  English,  342;  have 
firearms,  326 ;  alleged  treaty  with 
the  French,  333 ;  agreements  with 
the  Englisli,  333  ;  their  warriors,  333 ; 
map  of  their  country,  338 ;  banding 
the  western  tribes,  348,  355  ;  demand 
English  assistance,  355 ;  attacked  by 
Frontenac,  360  ;  dwindling,  361  ;  tlieir 
influence,  365 ;  make  peace  with  the 
French,  366.  , 

Irondequoit  Bay,  216,  337,  339.  \ 

Island  of  Orleans,  20. 

Isle  aux  Coudres,  20. 

Jacker,  Father,  187,  250. 

Jacobsz,  maps,  124,  125. 

Jail-birds  in  Canada,  28,  38,  44. 

Jailot,  his  map,  332. 

Jalobert,  Mac4,  28, 39,  40. 

Jamay,  Dennis,  114,  115. 

James,  Strange  Voyage,  145;  his  map, 
145. 

James  II.  of  England,  320,  332, 341, 342. 

Japan,  282. 

Jesso,  Island  of,  281. 

Jesuits,  join  the  Recollects  in  Canada, 
120;  their  labors,  120;  favored  by 
Richelieu,  138;  their  Belations,  130, 
201 ,  233 ;  their  connection  witli  Cham- 
plain's  final  edition,  141  ;  sent  west, 
148 ;  their  influence,  157 ;  their  mar- 
tyrs, 161 ;  among  the  Iroquois,  176, 
217  ;  struggle  with  the  Sulpitians,  170, 
217 ;  and  Frontenac,  233,  253 ;  as 
traders,  253  ;  on  La  Salle,  257 ;  rela- 
tions with  La  Salle,  2JM)  ;  their  Bela- 
tions as  evidence,  333  ;  expelled  from 
the  Iroquois  country,  341 ;  disagree 
with  Frontenac,  356,  360;  and  the 
liquor  traffic,  356;  dislike  Cadillac, 
306. 

Jogues,  159;  captured,  160 ;  among  the 
Iroquois,  161,  169;  killed,' 160. 

Joliet,  seeking  copper  mines,  203,  218 ; 
with  St.  Lusson,  204 ;  at  Green  Bay, 
205 ;  meets  La  Salle,  218 ;  first  tracks 
Lake  Erie,  219 ;  his  larger  map,  224, 
225  ;  his  smaller  map,  226,  227 ;  se- 


INDEX. 


373 


leoted  for  western  discovery,  234  ;  ig- 
norant of  what  La  Salle  had  done,  iSH ; 
joined  by  Marquette,  2:i4 ;  his  maps, 
28(} ;  his  expedition,  237 ;  reaches  the 
Mississippi,  238;  visits  the  Illinois, 
240 ;  turns  back,  243 ;  up  the  Illinois, 
243;  at  the  Chicago  portage,  244; 
at  Sault  Ste.  Marie,  244;  at  Fort 
Frontenac,  244 ;  loses  his  papers,  245 ; 
his  earliest  map  (1673-74),  245,  247 ; 
his  Carte  G^n^rale,  24U ;  his  accounts 
of  his  explorations,  245,  240;  map 
drawn  from  recollection,  240 ;  denied 
the  right  to  a  trading-post  on  the 
Mississippi,  250;  sent  to  Hudson's 
Bay,  3Ul ;  map  of  his  route  on  the 
Mississippi,  347 ;  his  buildings  on  An- 
ticosti  burned,  350. 

Joniard,  50. 

Joutel,  with  La  Salle,  310;  his  Journal 
Historique,  310,  317,  321 ;  his  map, 
318,  31U;  left  at  Fort  St.  Louis,  31'.), 
320 ;  on  La  Salle's  last  expedition, 
•321 ;  separates  from  La  Salle's  mur- 
derers, 322 ;  reaches  Starved  Rock, 
323  ;  tells  a  false  story,  323. 

Juchereau,  300. 

Judaeis's  map,  07. 

Kankakee  River,  244,  205,  272,  290. 

Kaskaskia  (on  the  Illinois),  243. 

Kennebec  River,  5)1,  147. 

Kickapoos,  237,  20i). 

King  map,  7. 

Kingsford,  Canada,  81,  211,  200,  317. 

Kirke,  David,  in  the  St.  Lawrence,  132 ; 

returns  to    England,   133 ;    captures 

Quebec,  134. 
Kirke,  Gervase,  132. 
Kohl,  J.  G.,  Discovery  of  Maine,  25,  20, 

55. 
Kretschnier's  Atlas,  5,  15,  19,  22. 
Kunstmann's  maps,  3,  0. 

La  Barre,  Governor,  .300 ;  impedes  La 

Salle's  movements,  303 ;  invades  the 

Seneca  country,  320. 
Labrador  as  an  island,  3,  7,  11 ;  in  the 

early  maps,  15 ;  its  coasts,  20. 
La  Chesnaye,  300. 
Lachine  attacked,  .343 ;  rapids,  85. 
Laconia,  135,  100. 
La  Forest,  272,  288,  310. 
Lafreri's  atlas,  01. 
La  Hontan  in  Canada,  351 ;  his  maps, 

352,  353,  354. 
Lake  of  the  Woods,  151. 
Lakes.     See  names  of  lakes. 
Lalemant,  Charles,  129, 130,  155. 
Lalemant,  Gabriel,  172. 
LamberviUe,  327,  334. 
La  Mothe  Cadillac.    See  Cadillac. 


Lane,  Ralph,  72. 

La  Pointe,  185 ;  mission,  198,  199. 

La  Platte  River,  240. 

La  Pothurie,  204. 

L'ArchevSquti,  321,  .324. 

La  Roche,    ^ee  Roberval. 

La  Salle,  his  early  life,  210;  and  the 
Jesuits,  211,  225;  settles  near  Mon- 
treal, 211 ;  portrait,  212 ;  plans  an  ex- 
pedition, 213 ;  joined  by  Galin^e,  214 ; 
starts,  214  ;  among  the  Iroquois,  217 ; 
meets  Joliet,  218;  his  truck  uncer- 
tain, 222;  his  papers,  222;  Hisloire 
de  M.  La  Salle,  222 ;  did  he  discover 
the  Ohio  and  Mississippi  ?  223,  224 ; 
his  Lachine  estate,  228 ;  and  the  early 
maps,  '230;  meets  Joliet,  244;  at 
Cataraqui,  244 ;  thinks  of  a  traffic  in 
buifalo  skins,  245 ;  relations  with 
Fronten.ac,  25 1 ;  com.nands  Fort  Fron- 
tenac, 252 ;  returns  to  France,  2.")3 ; 
obtains  a  grant,  253 ;  agrees  to  rebuild 
Fort  Frontenac,  2'A ;  ennobled,  254 ; 
returns  to  Canada,  2>'>4 ;  strengthens 
Fort  Frontenac,  255;  keeps  vessels 
on  Lake  Erie,  255 ;  again  in  France, 
250 ;  receives  a  patent  for  the  Mis- 
sissippi country,  250;  gains  the  aid 
of  Tonty,  257 ;  his  character,  257 ; 
at  Fort  Frontenac,  257 ;  builds  the 
"Griffon,"  258;  his  creditors,  200; 
at  St.  Ignace,  202;  at  Green  Bay, 
202 ;  on  liake  Michigan,  203 ;  anx- 
ious about  the  "  Griffon,"  264,^200, 
270,  271 ;  and  AUouez,  200 ;  builds 
Fort  CrftvecoBur,  201!;  builds  a  ves- 
sel, 2(i0 ;  returns  to  the  settlementa, 
208,  270;  at  Fort  Frontenac,  271; 
business  embarra.i.^nients,  271 ;  cap- 
tures marauder  ■  "^71;  again  on  the 
Illinois,  272  ;  re.^oh<j:j  the  Mississippi, 
272 ;  returns  to  t'n  '  Miami  country, 
272  ;  papers  perhaps  used  by  Henne- 
pin, 282 ;  his  official  report,  280 ;  in 
the  Miami  country,  288 ;  misrepre- 
sented by  the  Jesuits,  288 ;  his  Mo- 
hegan  hunter,  288 ;  hears  of  Tonty, 
289 ;  finds  him  at  M.ackinac,  289 ;  at 
Cataraqui  making  his  will,  289 ;  hates 
AUouez,  290 ;  takes  possession  of  the 
Arkansas  country,  292 ;  at  the  mouth 
of  the  Mississippi,  293 ;  falls  ill,  297 ; 
his  official  report,  297 ;  hints  at  a 
voyage  to  the  Mexican  gulf,  297 ;  his 
movements  incensed  the  Iroquois, 
298 ;  his  enemies  in  power,  300 ;  his 
property  seized,  300 ;  returns  to  the 
Illinois,  302  ;  fortifies  Starved  Rock, 
302 ;  embarrassed  by  La  Barre,  303 ; 
his  post  seized  by  De  Baugis,  304 ; 
hears  of  Frontenac's  recall,  304,  306 ; 
leaves  the  Rock,  305  ;  in  France,  307 ; 


874 


INDEX. 


I  •  ■■ 


m 


plans  an  expedition  by  sea  to  the 
mouths  of  the  Mississippi,  :iU8 ;  would 
reach  the  heathen,  !)U8 ;  his  posts  in 
Canada  restored,  310 ;  commissioned 
to  govern  Louisiana,  310;  his  dis- 
ordered ways,  iill ;  fears  of  the  Jes- 
uits, 31 1 ;  sails,  312 ;  at  San  Domingo, 
312 1  the  ships  separate  in  a  fog, 
312 ;  on  the  Texan  coast,  313 ;  joined 
by  IBeaujen,  313;  disembarks,  314; 
loses  the  "  Aimable,"  314;  his  camp, 
314  ;  his  confusion  about  the  Missis- 
sippi mouths,  317;  builds  Fort  St. 
Louis,  317;  first  attempt  to  find  the 
Mississippi,  318;  loses  the  "Belle," 
320  ;  seeks  a  way  to  the  Illinois 
country,  320 ;  his  last  expedition,  321 ; 
killed,  322 ;  fate  of  his  colony,  324 ; 
map  of  his  route  to  the  Mississippi, 
;W7. 

La  Tour,  Charles  de,  138, 173. 

Lavaca  Bay,  317. 

Laval  arrives,  170;  on  liquor  selling, 
180;  portrait,  215;  returns  from 
France,  2.")4. 

Le  Caron,  Joseph,  114,  11.5, 117. 

Leclercq,  Premier  Etablissevient  de  la 
Foi/,  283,  310. 

Leisler,  Governor,  344,  350. 

Le  Jeune,  130, 144,  148,  155,  159 ;  por- 
trait, 157. 

Lemercier,  158,200. 

Lemoine,  Quebec,  327. 

Le  Moyne,  Simon,  175. 

Lescarbot  on  Hochelaga,  34;  on  Car- 
tier,  4(! ;  La  Nouvelle  France,  08, 101. 

Le  Sueur,  Pierre,  342,  348,  350,  360, 
365. 

Liens,  N.  des,  map,  03. 

Linschoten,  ()6. 

Liotot,  321,  322. 

Liturgical  test  in  geography,  14. 

Lok's  map,  20,  21,  72. 

Long  River,  351. 

Longrais  on  Cartier,  23. 

Louis  XIV.,  320,  341. 

Louisiana,  taken  possession  of  by  La 
Salle.  203;  its  extent  in  Franquelin 
map,  203. 

Louvigny,  .355. 

Luiz,  Lazaro,  map,  12. 

Mackenzie  River,  151. 

Mackinac,  map  of,  235 ;  strengthened, 
303 ;  Jesuit  mission,  355 ;  garrison, 
357 ;  the  settlement,  360. 

Mackinaw,  Straits  of,  144 ;  its  dominat- 
ing position,  1.50. 

Magdalene  Islands,  26. 

Magellan,  4. 

Maine,  coast  of,  00,  112. 

MaioUo  (Maggiolo)  map,  14,  18,  19. 


Maisonneuve,  founder  of  Montreal,  105 ; 
his  portrait,  1U4. 

Major,  R.  H.,  .55. 

Manoe,  Jeanne,  her  portrait,  165 ;  eni- 
barks  at  Roohelle,  166. 

Manhattan,  124,  147. 

Manitoulin  Islands,  202, 204. 

Marcel,  224. 

Margry,  Collection,  etc.,  210, 210, 222-224. 
227,  246,  247, 256,  282,  287,  2S0.  201. 
292,  295, 311,  317.  323,  .325 ;  his  char- 
acter, 223,  227  ;  his  route  for  La  Stdle, 
224,  225. 

Marquette,  at  Sault  Ste.  Marie,  190, 
202,  200;  at  La  Pointe.  109,  200; 
founds  St.  Ignaoe  mission,  202 ;  at 
Sault  Ste.  Marie,  220;  his  statue. 
231 ;  joins  Joliet,  2v}4 ;  on  the  Missis- 
sippi, 242 ;  at  Mackinac,  244 ;  his  ac- 
counts of  his  discoveries,  247;  his 
maps,  248,  249 ;  returns  to  the  Illi- 
nois, 249;  winters  near  the  Cliicagu 
portage,  249 ;  at  Koskaskia,  250 ;  his 
death,  250 ;  his  grave,  250. 

Marshall,  O.  H.,  on  Champlain's  maroh, 
117;  Historical  Writings,  216,  2r»!-, 
.338. 

Martin,  Mission  du  Canada,  246,  247. 

Martines,  70. 

Martjrr,  Peter,  doubts  the  Asiatic  the- 
ory, 3. 

Maryland  founded,  134;  map)>ed,  207. 

Mascoutins,  152,  237,  2<t4. 

Massachusetts  Bay,  1 13 ;  population  of, 
147. 

Massachusetts  charter,  135,  203. 

Mass^,  Enemond,  12!>,  145. 

Matagorda  Bay,  315. 

Matagorda  Island,  313. 

Maumee  River,  250. 

Mauropas,  306. 

Mazarin,  189. 

Medina,  Pedro,  Arte  de  Navegar,  59; 
map,  .59. 

Megapolensis,  170. 

Melwarik,  364.     See  Milwaukee. 

Membrd,  201 ,  267,  270 ;  his  journal  and 
Hennepin's,  28:i.  280, 289, 297 ;  anions 
the  Arkansas,  292 ;  nurses  La  Salle, 
297 ;  on  La  Salle's  Texan  expedition, 
310. 

Menard,  Ren^,  187. 

Mercator,  Gerard,  maps  (15Ji8).  48,  49; 
his  great  map,  04;  comparative  ge- 
ographer, 05,  70;  Atlas,  88;  on  the 
Straits  of  Anian,  280. 

Mercator-Hondius  Atlas,  lOJ. 

Mercure  Franqois,  101. 

Metellus.  67. 

Meulan  de  Circe,  229. 

Meules,  350. 

M^zy,  Sieur  de,  189. 


INDEX. 


876 


Asiatic  the- 


Miamis,  237;  atUck  the  Illinoia,  208; 
to  be  leaioied,  28U. 

Michel,  Frencit  colonista,  132. 

Mivhelant,  58, 

Mivhi((an,  Lake,  151 ;  described  by 
Marquette,  24)>;  mapped  by  Fran- 
nuelin,  ii44 ;  by  Coruiit^lli,  !>45 ;  by 
Raffeix,  347;  by  La  Hontan,  :3!>2; 
by  Hennepin,  358 ;  Wells's,  3U2. 

Milet,  328,  :{44. 

Mille  Lacs,  273. 

MUwaukee,  2((4,  304. 

Minet,  his  map,  315,  310. 

Mississippi  Kiver,  early  found  by  the 
Spaniards,  5;  developed  by  the  French, 
0 ;  early  notion  of  its  ma^rnitude,  11(( ; 
valley,  151 ;  early  intimations  of, 
183,  \m,  201,  213;  perhaps  seen, 
180,  187,  230;  called  Missipi,  lUO, 
238 ;  its  uncertain  direction,  2UU,  201 , 
213,  225 ;  did  Ln  Salle  reach  it  before 
Joliet  did  'f  225 ;  reached  in  1073, 
221),  238 ;  named  La  Buade,  238 ;  and 
Conception,  238 ;  its  native  name,  238 ; 
extent  of  its  water-shed,  23l> ;  Joliet's 
farthest  point,  243;  Joliet's  maps, 
245,  240;  Marquette's  maps,  248, 
240;  approach  by  the  Maumee  and 
Wabash,  25(( ;  La  Salle  wishes  to  find 
its  mouth,  250 ;  Hennepin's  first  map 
of,  279,  282 ;  second  map,  282,  285 ; 
his  diverse  statements,  282,  283; 
called  Colbert,  200,  200;  its  great 
valley,  203,  204;  La  Salle  at  its 
mouth,  205  ;  "  Acadian  coast,"  205  ; 
Franquelin's  map  of  its  mouths,  200 ; 
Miners  maps,  31({;  Joutel's  map, 
318 ;  Franquelin's  (1088),  map,  344 ; 
Coronelli's  map  (1088),  344;  Raf- 
feix's  map,  347  ;  Hennepin's,  3.58 ; 
Wells's,  302. 

Missouri  River,  151,  240 ;  called  Osage, 
2t>l. 

Mistassini  River,  44. 

Mitchell,  John,  230. 

Mobile  Bay,  2.50,  20.3. 

Mohawks  make  peace,  100;  raiding, 
170;  attacked  by.  Courcelles,  194; 
and  Tracy,  104 ;  sue  for  peace,  104. 

Mohegaiut,  200,  2(i4,  288,  334,  305. 

Molineaux's  map,  07,  00. 

Montagnais,  pact  with,  95;  missions, 
115,  l.')8;  mentioned,  175, 188,  107. 

Montanus,  207. 

Montigny,  304. 

Montmagny,  Charles  Huault  de,  150; 
his  policy  as  governor,  157. 

Montmorency,  Duke  of,  123;  sells  his 
viceroyalty,  12(5. 

Montmorency  Falls,  84. 

Montreal,  visited  by  Cartier,  33 ;  site 
of,  85 ;    founded,  101 ;   map  of  its 


vicinity,  102,  103,  108;  its  position, 
107 ;  and  the  fur  trade,  211. 

Mont  Uoyale,  33. 

Monts,  Sieur  de,  77  ;  on  the  Atlantic 
coast,  IH);  on  the  St.    Lawrence,  01], 

OS,  00. 

Mornuget,  321. 

Moreau,  Pierre,  274. 

Mount  Desert,  02. 

Mount  Joliet,  243. 

Mouy,  Charles  de,  27. 

Miinster,  Sebastian,  00 ;  his  maps,  40, 

58. 
Muskingum  Kiver,  223. 
Muskrat  Lake,  112. 
Myritius,  his  map,  73. 

Nahant,  Dutch  at,  112. 

Nancy  globe,  50. 

Nantes,  Edict  of,  74. 

Natchez  Indians,  202. 

Nepigon,  Lake,  105. 

Neutere,  1 10. 

New  Amsterdam,  100. 

New  Biscay  mines,  312. 

New  England,  settled,  135 ;  confederacy, 
100 ;  map,  340  ;  Society  for  the  Prop- 
agation of  the  Oospel  in,  174 ;  popu- 
lation, 174,  187. 

Newfoundland  coasts  in  the  early  maps, 
1-3,  5-8,  10-12,  15-17,  10,  20,  25, 
40,  53-55,  50,  00,  02,  71, 125 ;  eariy 
visitors,  23,  25,  73-75;  Champlain's 
map,  104,  107, 140 ;  Calvert  at  Ferry- 
land,  124 ;  mapped  by  Hondius,  141 ; 
by  Duval,  220. 

New  Plymouth  Colony,  147. 

New  Scotland,  128. 

New  York  and  the  Iroquois,  103 ;  grants 
to  the  Duke  of  York,  203 ;  restored 
to  the  English  (1074),  253 ;  popula- 
tion, 320;  invasion  threatened,  341; 
attack  proposed  by  the  French,  347, 
357. 

Niagara,  Falls,  early  heard  of,  8(i ;  River, 
104  ;  Falls  in  Champlain's  map,  144 ; 
early  notions,  144 ;  mentioned  by  Vi- 
mont,  150;  River  early  described, 
171 ;  FaUs  heard  by  La  Salle,  217; 
Gorge,  244 ;  River,  map,  200 ;  Henne- 
pin's view  of  Falls,  201 ;  exaggerated 
by  Hennepin,  307 ;  spelling  of  the 
name,  3>}4,  341. 

Nicolet,  Jean,  his  discoveries,  22, 140, 
150 ;  at  Three  Rivers,  153 ;  effect  of 
his  story,  150 ;  on  the  Fox  River,  237. 

Nipissing  Lake,  110,  204. 

Noel,  Jacques,  30,  40,  72,  75. 

Nordenskiold,  21. 

Normans  on  the  Newfoundland  banks, 
23. 

North  America,  its  great  waterways,  4 ; 


876 


INDEX. 


m  • 


Mi     ,. 


early  notiona  an  to  its  width,  1ft,  in ; 
•■  ail  arvhipelago,  17 ;  early  niapa, 
1-4,  H,  12,  15-17,  1ft,  2(»,  4ft,  .W,  &ft, 
(M.  07,  72,  IIU;  aa  8  part  uf  Alia,  21, 
22. 

North  Sea,  lt)ft. 

Northwt>Ht  pawtage,  it51. 

NoruiiilM'Ka,  i**'- 

Oirilby,  maps,  UM\  207,  210. 

Ohio  Kiv«r,  early  intimations  of,  170, 
177,  IHl,  217 ;  I^  8alle  upon  it,  224 ; 
called  the  Wabash,  241 ;  the  Iroquois 
on,  242 ;  undeveloped  in  Joliet's  maps, 
245,  240;  and  in  Muruuette's,  248, 
24t) ;  approach  bv  the  Maumee  and 
Wabiuiti,  250  ;  unknown  to  Hennepin, 
27(<,  2ftl ;  misunderstood  by  La  Salle, 
27H,  2t)l ;  drawn  incorrectly  by  Mi- 
net,  iilO;  mapped  by  Franqueliii, 
•^  ;  by  Kaffeix,  :i47  ;  by  Hennepin, 
85S  ;  English  traders,  805. 

Oil  Cwek,  170. 

Oiibwa>-s,  150,  l.'iO,  183. 

Olier,  UW>,  1((0. 

Oliva,  J..  107. 

Oneida,  Lake,  117. 

Onondaga,  Lake,  30&. 

Oiioudagas,  their  fort,  117 ;  its  plan, 
111». 

Ontario,  Lake,  prefigured,  80,  10.}; 
mapped  by  Chainplain,  14:);  its 
southern  water-shea,  101,  175 ;  map 
(lOSS),  ak'^,  3.54;  Hennepin's  map, 
;i5J> ;  \yells's,  302. 

Orinoco  River,  10. 

Ortelius's  maps,  04-06 ;  his  interest  in 
American  geography,  08,  73 ;  on  the 
Straits  of  Anian,  280. 

(^ages,  river  of,  241.     See  Missouri. 

Oswego  River,  first  entered,  175. 

Ottawa  River,  seen  by  Gartier,  33 ;  in 
Mercator's  map,  05,  72 ;  and  Cham- 
plain,  85,  87,  105;  Champlain  on, 
110,  112,  110;  mapped  by  him,  143; 
the  usual  route,  lol,  171,  181 ;  route 
and  portages,  210,  221,  227 ;  in  Joli- 
et's maps,  245,  240 ;  in  Jailot's  map, 
332. 

Ottawas  at  Manitoulin  Island,  202  ;  on 
the  Mississippi,  214;  missions,  222; 
on  the  Illinois.  205 ;  as  fur-hunters, 
3:{0 ;  Perrot  among  them,  348. 

Ontagamies,  204. 

Oviedo,  Sumario,  17,  48,  01. 

Padron  (Jeneral,  48. 

Pitge,  Louis  de,  194. 

Pann  Indians,  202. 

Panuco.  21«,  309. 

Pare,  Sieur  de,  100. 

Parkman,  F.,  on  Cartier's  portrait,  31 ; 


cited,  74,  118,  150,  224,  230;  hia 
maps,  2ftl,  294 ;  on  Pefkalora,  .')09. 

Paniientier,  Jean,  57. 

Patterson,  Dr.,  12. 

Peltrie,  Madame  de  la,  100 ;  portrait, 
100. 

Penaloaa,  abetting  La  Salle,  309. 

Penn,  William,  301. 

Pennsylvania,  charter,  20:^. 

Penobscot  River,  90. 

Peoria  Lake,  2t(5. 

Pepin,  Lake,  178,  270,  :^0,  342. 

Per^,  195,  218. 

Perrot,  Nicolas,  with  St.  Luason,  202, 
204 ;  his  memoirs,  204 ;  quarrel  witli 
Frontenao,  253,  328;  on  the  Missis- 
sippi, 330 ;  at  the  west,  342 ;  among 
the  Ottawas,  348,  300. 

PhUip  II.,  74. 

Philip's  war,  288. 

Phillipps,  Sir  Thomas,  55. 

Phips,  Sir  William,  350. 

Pineda  in  the  Gulf  of  Mexico,  5. 

Pinot,  22». 

Plessis,  Pacifique  du,  114,  121. 

Plymouth  Company,  147.  i 

Plymouth  Pilgrims,  122,  123,  130. 

Poncet,  P^re,  175. 

Pontohartrain,  300. 

Pontgrav^,  77,  83,89,  91, 9:3-95, 98,  111, 
121. 

Poole,  W.  F.,  on  Hennepin,  283. 

Pope,  Joseph,  on  Cartier,  23. 

Popellini^re,  08. 

Porcacchi's  maps,  03,  280. 

Porcupine  Indians,  171. 

Portland,  Me.,  349. 

Port  Royal  (Annapolis),  attacked  by 
Phips,  350. 

Portuguese  in  the  Qulf  of  St.  Lawrence, 
0,  7,  11,  55;  portolanos,  7,  11,  02; 
under  Fagundes,  12, 13 ;  chart  (1520), 
15 ;  on  the  Newfoundland  Banks,  24. 

Pottawattamies,  153,  159,  200,  219,270. 

Poutrincourt,  90. 

Pr^vert,  Sieur,  80,  bS. 

Priest  and  trader,  177. 

Prince  Edward  Island,  26. 

Prouville,  Alexander  de.     See  Tracy. 

Ptolemy  maps,  7,  11,  01. 

Puants,  their  bay,  misplaced  by  Cham- 
plain,  143. 

Purchas,  124. 

Quebec,  Champlain  at,  84;  founded, 
94 ;  new  fortress  at,  l25 ;  threatened 
by  the  Iroquois,  125;  famine,  130; 
surrender  demanded,  132 ;  given  up, 
134 ;  restored,  135 ;  Indian  confer- 
ence at,  140;  early  records,  148; 
Chapel  of  Notre  Dame  de  Recou- 
vrance,  149 ;  described,  ^  53 ;  popula- 


' 


INDEX. 


877 


tkw,  1<VI,  100 ;  ita  ait«  imprvMed  Fron- 
tvnae.  '£XA ;  icrvAt  flra  in,  21H> ;  ruina 
of  int«mfiuit'a  paUo«,  'A'il ;  ita  con- 
dition, :12H ;  atUoked  by  Phipa,  :iOO ; 
ila  dofvnaea,  355. 

Quay  Ilia,  1*14. 

Quint4  niiaaion,  214. 

Radiaaon,  Siaur,  in  Canada,  182;  cap- 
tured, IKi;  at  the  North,  1U5;  in 
Enslaad,  1V7 ;  in  Quebec,  MX. 

Raffeix,  hia  mapa,  >\A6,  'AVI. 

RaKuvneau,  Ukt ;  hia  niapi  158 ;  Rela- 
(ION,  171, 17:t. 

Rani4  on  Cartier,  2:],  27. 

Kamuaio  on  Cartier,  27,  62 ;  hia  la- 
bors, 01 ;  Haccolta,  57 ;  hia  intereat  in 
American  Keography,  74. 

Raudin  li^  out  Fort  Frontenao,  252 ; 
aent  to  Lake  Superior,  25.'>. 

Ravmbault,  159 ;  death  of,  KM). 

Ra^ly,  137. 

Recollects  in  Canada,  1 14  ;  their  char- 
acter, 115;  on  the  8t.  Charles,  122 ; 
their  convents  attacked,  120 ;  others 
airive,    120;   befriended    by  Cham- 

Elain,  120;  their  missions,  120,  270; 
lYite  the  Jesuits  to  join  them,  120  ; 
apply  for  a  biahop,  1.30;  excluded 
from  Canada,  130;  treatment  of  in 
Champlain'a  final  narrative,  141 ;  and 
Frontenac,  23:^. 

Red  River,  201,  202,  309. 

Reiuel  chart,  5-7. 

R^my,  Daniel  de.    See  Courcelles. 

Ribero  map,  48. 

Ribouide,  'M9. 

Richelieu,  1:10 ;  and  the  missions,  138 ; 
delays  to  send  succor  to  Canada,  140. 

Richelieu  River,  102. 

Rio  Bmvo,  :^>. 

Rio  Grande,  203. 

Roanoke  River,  72. 

Roberval,  37,  65,  50;  his  career,  40; 
death,  47. 

Rochelle,  merchants  of,  00. 

Rooky  Mountains,  203. 

Roman  calendar  in  geography,  14. 

Roquemont,  Claude  de,  131 ;  defeated, 
133. 

Rotz's  maps,  50,  51, 01 ;  Boke  of  Idrog- 
raphj/,  51. 

Rouen  and  the  new  world,  18;  mer- 
chants. 101. 

RousaUi^re,  213. 

Roytet>.  44. 

Rnge,  Sophus,  1, 15. 

Rupert,  Prince,  197. 

Rupert's  River,  107. 

Rnscelli's  maps,  03,  70. 

Ruysch's  map,  7,  8. 

Ryswick,  Peace  of,  301. 


Sabine  River,  313. 

.Sable  Island,  (II,  70. 

Maffard,  Uabriel,  120,   150,  153 ;  on  the 

Indiana,  115. 
Kagean,  207. 

Satnienay    River,  20,   37,   42-44,   54, 
78 ;  explored  by  Chaniplain,  84 ;  in- 
fested   by   Iroquois,    174,   107 ;    ex- 
plored, 108,231,353. 
Salnte  Croix,  Cartier  at,  34. 
Salem,  l^io. 
Salmon  Falb,  340. 
Sanson's  map,  170,  180  (1000),  238. 
Siiuta  Cruz,  his  map,  51. 
Sault  St.  Louis,  85. 

Sault  Ste.  Marie,    144,    150;   mission, 
150,   im,  220 ;   St.  Lussoii  at,  202 ; 
its  position,  200. 
Savigiion,  tH). 
SchenecUuly,  104,  340. 
Sohoner,    his    gores,    21 ;   his  view   of 
North  America,  21 ;    his  theory   of 
North  America,  73. 
Schoolcraft,  258. 

Seeley,  Erpansion  of  England,  ;i43. 
St^ignelay  in  power,  208,  343. 
Seignelay  River,  243.     See  Red  River. 
Seigneuries,  107. 

Senecas,  villages,  210  ;  object  to  a  fort 
at  Niagara,  257 ;  middlemen  for  the 
English,  258 ;  moving  West,  305, 
820 ;  threaten  to  destroy  the  "  Grif- 
fon," 200;  make  a  truce  with  La 
Barre,  328 ;  attacked  by  Dehonville, 
i^^7 ;  map  of  their  country,  330.  See 
Iroquois. 
Shiiwnees,  218,  241,  2(58,  200,320. 
Shea,  J.  G.,  118;  on  La  Salle,  225.  244, 
257, 2(«J,  270, 282  ;  his  Catholic  Church 
in  Colonial  Doi/n,  225 ;  on  Marquette, 
229, 230 ;  Discot  <  rv  of  the  Mississij^i, 
247,  240,  207;  on  Hennepin,  284 ;  on 
Peilalosa,  300;  on  the  Lachine  mas- 
sacre, ;-J43. 
Ship  (1013),  113  ;  building,  147  ;  cuts 

of,  .357. 
Simcoe,  Lake,  120,  272. 
Sioux,  152,  159,  178,  180,190,  201,202; 
presents  to,  255 ;  visited  by  Dnluth, 
273 ;  wandering  parties,  270,  277 ;  in 
Montreal,  300.     See  Dacotahs. 
Slafter,  E.  F.,  118. 
Smith,  Captain  John,  02,  135. 
Soissons,  Comte  de,  103. 
South  America,  Columbus's  view  of  its 
extent,   10;  early  maps,  1,  2,  8,  11, 
15-17,  19,  20,  22,  49,  04,  05. 
Spain,  suspicious  of  France,  38. 
Spaniards  and  the  French,  103. 
Sparks,  Jared,  on  Marquette,  249 ;  on 

La  Salle,  284. 
Square  Gulf,  10,  11,  23,  07. 


378 


INDEX. 


S   !' 


St.  Anthony's  Falls,  276. 

St.  Charles  River,  29,  34. 

St.  Clair,  Lake,  262. 

St.  Cosme,  364. 

St.  Francis  Xavier  mission,  200. 

St.  Oermain-en-Laye,  Treaty  of,  137, 
301. 

St.  Ignace  mission,  202,  250 ;  "  Grif- 
fon" at,  262. 

St.  John,  Lake,  231. 

St.  Joseph  River,  264. 

St.  Joseph's  (Sillery),  158. 

St.  Lawrence  valley,  early  knowledge 
of,  4,  23,  68 ;  origin  of  name,  28,  58 ; 
ascended  by  Cartier,  28,  39 ;  earliest 
charts,  42;  ascended  by  Roberval, 
42;  cartography  of,  50,  53-55,  58, 
62,  64,  65,  67,  69,  71 ;  shown  as  an 
archipelago,  63  ;  attempts  to  colonize, 
77 ;  Chauvin  and  Pontgrav^,  77,  78 ; 
Champlain  on.  See  Champlain ;  maps 
of,  by  Charaplain,  102,  104-107,  140, 
142,143;  in  Gerritsz,  110;  Basques 
in,  124 ;  Dutch  map,  125 ;  in  Hondius, 
141 ;  Dudley's  map,  170 ;  exposed  to 
inroads,  171 ;  Sanson's  map,  179 ;  Gott- 
fried's map,  180 ;  Heylyn's  map,  180 ; 
Blaeu's  map,  181 ;  Visscher's  map, 
181 ;  Creuxius's  map,  184,  185 ;  Ogil- 
by's  map,  210;  Duval's  map,  226; 
its  extent,  239 ;  Joliet's  maps,  245, 
246 ;  Hennepin's  maps,  279, 284,  285 ; 
map  (1683),  291 ;  Minet's  map,  316 ; 
Joutel's  map,  318 ;  Jailot's  map, 
332. 

St.  Louis,  city,  site  of,  241. 

St.  Louis,  Lake,  102. 

St.  Lusson  at  Sault  Ste.  Marie,  202 ;  his 
pageant,  204. 

St.  Malo,  24,  27,  36,  75,  77-79,  91, 112 ; 
merchants,  101. 

Ste.  Marie  mission  (Georgian  Bay),  159. 

St.  Mark  mission,  200. 

St.  Mary's  current,  31. 

St.  Michel  River,  30. 

St.  Pierre  Island,  36. 

St.  Pierre,  Lake,  85, 192. 

St.  Quentin,  74. 

Stadacona,  29. 

Starved  Rock,  265, 267,  272,  302 ;  view, 
303;  abandoMcd,  .340. 

Stephens,  H.  B.,  on  Cartier,  23. 

Stevens,  Henry,  21. 

Strait  of  the  Three  Brothers,  58. 

Subercase,  343. 

Sulpitians,  179;  and  La  Salle,  211;  at 
Montreal,  211;  missions,  214;  and 
Jesuits,  220 ;  and  Frontenac,  253. 

Suite,  Benjamin,  1.50, 152,  183, 189, 215 ; 
Canadiens-Francftis,  306. 

Superior,  Lake,  mapped  by  Champlain, 
143 ;    unseen,    151  ;    pictured  rocks, 


184 ;  named  Tracy,  198 ;  mapped  by 
the  Jesuits,  206,  208,  209 ;  copper  at, 
218 ;  its  size,  222 ;  mapped  by  Fran- 
quelin,  344 ;  by  Coronelli,  345 ;  by 
Raffeix,  347 ;  by  La  Hontan,  352 ; 
Hennepin's,  .358 ;  Wells's,  362. 

Susquehanna  River,  117,  121. 

Sylvanus's  map  (1511),  10,  11. 

Tadenac,  Lake  of,  67. 

Tadoussac,  settlement  at,  7, 79, 83 ;  miap, 
79. 

Taensas,  292. 

Tailhan,  Father,  204. 

Talon,  Jean  Baptiste,  intendant,  191 ; 
aids  western  discovery,  193 ;  and 
western  exploration,  218,  231 ;  and 
northern  exploration,  23l ;  disliked 
Frontenac,  232. 

Tannery,  360. 

Taupine,  La.     See  Moreau. 

Tennessee  River,  291,  351,  365. 

Thevenot,  Recueil,  249. 

Thomassy,  Giologie  pratique  de  la 
Louisiane,  296,  297.  \ 

Three  Brothers,  Strait  of,  73.  ' 

Three  Rivers,  84, 121 ;  settled,  148. 

Thwaites,  R.  G.,  Historic  Waterways, 
349. 

Ticonderoga,  Champlain  at,  96,  97. 

Tobacco  Nation,  115,  159. 

Tonty,  Henri,  joins  La  Salle,  257;  at 
Niagara,  260 ;  at  the  Detroit  River, 
261 ;  on  Lake  Michigan,  263 ;  occu> 
pies  Starved  Rock,  268 ;  wounded, 
269;  deserts  the  Illinois,  269;  pros- 
trated, 270  sought  by  La  Salle,  272, 
288;  disowns  the  Dernieres  Decou- 
vertes,  289,  325 ;  with  La  Salle,  2!H) ; 
at  St.  Ignace,  297;  goes  down  the 
Mississippi  to  succor  La  Salle,  322 ; 
his  Mitnoires,  325 ;  attacked  at  the 
Rock,  326;  joins  Denonville,  334; 
meets  Joutel,  338 ;  descends  the  Mis- 
sissippi, 338  ;  given  a  patent  of  the 
Rock  region,  340;  seeks  Iberville, 
340 ;  on  the  Mississippi,  356, 365. 

Tordesillas,  Treaty  of,  6. 

Tournon,  Cardinal,  37. 

Tra«y,  Marquis  dc,  191 ;  attacks  the 
Mohawks,  194. 

Trader  and  priest,  177. 

Trent  River,  117. 

Trinity  River,  321. 

Troyes,  De,  at  Hudson's  Bay,  .331 ;  at 
Niagara,  337. 

Ulpius's  globe,  50. 

Vallard,  Nicolas,  map,  55. 
Van  Rensselaers,  130. 
Ventadour,  Duke  of,  126, 129. 


H    if 


INDEX. 


379 


Vermilion  Sea,  240. 

Verrazano  map,  14,  18  j  sea  of,  17,  18, 

20-22. 
Vespiicius's  alleged  voyage,  8. 
Viegas,  Gaspar,  map,  14,  24,  25. 
Vignau,  Nicolas  de,  100 ;   his  deceit, 

109. 
Ville,  Marie.    See  Montreal. 
Vimont,  Relation,  152,  167. 
Vincelot,  363. 
Virginia,  92,  98, 113 ;  wheat  trade,  147  j 

charter,    203 ;    her  explorers,  203 ; 

traders,  242. 
Visscher's  maps,  178,  181. 
Voyageurs,  120. 

Wabash  River,  La  SaUe  on,  224,  241, 

2.=36,  291. 
Walloons,  130. 
Wells,  Edward,  maps,  362. 
Western  Sea,  supposed,  147,  148, 159. 
Westminster,  Treaty  of,  253. 


White,  of  Virginia,  113. 
White  Fish  Indians,  171. 
Whittlesey,  Charles,  278. 
Winnebago  Lake,  171,  200,  349. 
Winnebagoes,  151. 
Winnepesaukee,  Lake,  160. 
Winnipeg,  Lake,  151. 
Winthrop,  Governor,  invites  the  French 

to  a  commercial  treaty,  173. 
Winthrop,  Fitz-John,  350. 
Wintlirop,  Wait,  197. 
Wisconsin  River,   152,  200 ;  Joliet  on, 

237 ;  map,  349. 
Wolf  River,  200. 

Wood,  Colonel  Abraham,  183,  229. 
Wood  River,  230. 
Wytfliet,  his  first  American  atlas,  67, 

101,  280. 

Young,  Captain  Thomas,  146. 
Zalterius,  map,  64,  280. 


